Word: russia
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...ended in acquittal in February, many, including Politkovskaya's family, were relieved. It meant the investigation into the crusading journalist's shooting would continue and, they hoped, would finally catch the real culprits: the person who ordered the assassination and the person who pulled the trigger. But on Thursday, Russia's Supreme Court overturned the acquittal and ordered a retrial, sparking fears that a guilty verdict the second time around will end the search for Politkovskaya's killers...
...verdict for the alleged accomplices could end the investigation and allow those directly responsible for the murder to remain free. Meanwhile, journalists and human rights advocates can't help but note that the announcement comes little more than a week before U.S. President Barack Obama is due to visit Russia. (See pictures of Obama in Europe...
...Politkovskaya, who reported on human rights abuses during Russia's war in Chechnya and was a fierce critic of then-President Vladimir Putin, was shot in the head and killed in her apartment building in central Moscow on Oct. 7, 2006. During the four-month trial which ended in acquittals in February, Ibragim Makhmudov was accused of acting as a lookout and calling his brothers to tell them that the journalist was on her way home, while his brother Dzhabrail Makhmudov allegedly drove the shooter, believed to be the third brother, Rustam Makhmudov, who remains at large. The third defendant...
...behind the Supreme Court's call for a retrial, which may start in the fall. "This decision sounds okay - as though the 'good' Supreme Court has corrected problems and justice has triumphed," said Yulia Latynina, an investigative journalist, during the political talk show she hosts on Ekho Moskvy. "In Russia, everything is rigged: the police, the prosecution and the courts. This is just P.R. to create the impression that there is a legal process taking place...
...misguided. "There may be recognition in the government that the failure to hold someone to account for the murder of Politkovskaya is a glaring omission - and there should be accountability for such crimes, but within the bounds of fair trial protections," Allison Gill, director of Human Rights Watch in Russia, tells TIME. "It might be that the Kremlin wants to show that they want to get the job done." (See pictures of Russia celebrating Victory...