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Last week, a jury acquitted three defendants in the murder trial of Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The newspaper's deputy editor Sergei Sokolov said, "We insist that the defendants were guilty. The investigators were simply prevented from doing their job properly."
Politically motivated murders are committed in other countries, of course. After all, John F. Kennedy's killer was never found. But in Russia, as always, anything goes. Only in Russia could the chief murder suspect, Rustam Makhmudov, avoid prosecution despite the fact that he apparently arrived at the crime scene in his own car and entered Politkovskaya's apartment building wearing his own coat, which was captured on the video surveillance camera near the building entrance.
Those who ordered the murder are obviously happy with the verdict. But there is another group that is also content: certain members of the liberal opposition who take joy whenever the government reveals its gross negligence and incompetence.
What went wrong in the case? If the murderers were complete strangers to those who ordered the contract killing, it would have been easy to sacrifice those who pulled the trigger and lock them away for life. But the killers were too closely related to the organizers of the crime, and in order to protect the identity of the latter it was necessary to release the former. And this is why the case collapsed.
At Novaya Gazeta, where I am a columnist, we believe that there were two key figures behind the Politkovskaya murder. The first was Shamil Burayev, the former head of Chechnya's Achkhoy-Martanovsky district. The second was Burayev's close acquaintance, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, reported leader of the of Lazansky gang that specializes in narcotics and contract killings.
It is possible that Burayev had prior dealings with Gaitukayev. In 2004, it was allegedly members of the Lazansky group who killed Yan Sergunin, the first deputy prime minister of Chechnya. Sergunin had lent money to Burayev for his election campaign. Therefore, when Sergunin was killed, Burayev no longer had to pay that money back.
To solve the mystery of who ordered the killing, the lawyers for Politkovskaya's family could have started by taking a closer look at who Burayev and Gaitukayev had dealings with. The investigation revealed ample evidence, and for anyone who knows how things are done in Chechnya, it is quite clear who stands behind this crime.
The 12-member jury unanimously acquitted Gaitukayev's two nephews -- Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov -- who were also the younger brothers of the suspected triggerman, Rustam Makhmudov. According to the prosecutors' charges, Dzhabrail drove Rustam to the crime scene and Ibragim called him when Politkovskaya's car passed by.
During the trial, the Makhmudov brothers "did not remember" Ibragim's phone number. They also "did not remember" that they owned the car identified at the crime scene, nor could they recall what they were doing for 1 1/2 hours at the murder scene. But most amazing was they "did not remember" that they have an older brother named Rustam in whose apartment they lived.
Thanks to the brilliant performance by defense attorney Murad Musayev and the passive position of the Politkovskaya family's lawyers, the accused were acquitted. So now the lawyers representing the Politkovskaya family will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and argue that the case wasn't properly investigated by the prosecutor's office. Good luck. As if the European court will find the killers.
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.
