Douglas Birch And David Nowak, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 14 mins ago AP –
MOSCOW – A jury in Moscow voted unanimously Thursday to acquit three men in the killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, dimming hopes for justice in a case that has mocked Russia's claims to be a modern democratic nation.
The brazen 2006 slaying of the crusading investigative reporter sent a grim signal to other dissenters in Russia, proving that even the most prominent of Kremlin critics could be murdered with impunity.
And it provoked international outrage, raising suspicions that her death was ordered by prominent public officials.
A jury acquitted two Chechen brothers and a morose ex-cop following a trial that defense attorneys and Politkovskaya's supporters said was marred by prosecution errors and oversights.
All three were suspected of playing minor roles in the killing. A suspected triggerman, a third brother, has not been found.
Politkovskaya was shot five times in the elevator of her central Moscow apartment building on Oct. 7, 2006, after a trip to the supermarket.
In her articles, Politkovskaya had attacked some of Russia's most powerful political leaders. She was a ferocious critic of former president and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, on whose birthday the 48-year-old journalist was slain. In one book, she accused him of crushing dissent and leading a "failing democracy."
She had also accused the regime of Ramzan Kadyrov, a former militia leader and now president of the Russian region of Chechnya, of torture and corruption, charges that he has denied.
During the trial, Politkovskaya's colleagues and family said, prosecutors put together a feeble case — never bothering to offer a formal theory of who might have paid for the suspected contract slaying, or why.
Now those close to Politkovskaya fear they will never see justice done.
Sergei Sokolov, one of Politkovskaya's editors at the opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, said the verdicts could make it harder to pressure low-level plotters to testify against organizers.
Now, he said, he feared authorities would "catch the first few homeless people they see, label them guilty and close the case."