Anna Politkovskaya - murdered on 6 October 2006. ©Katja Tähjä
Friederike Behr blogs from Russia
The trial into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya has come to a close. During the last month, the proceedings took many twists and turns.
Before the New Year, Anna Politkovskaya’s children had raised doubts about the list of phonecalls their mother was said to have made before she was shot on 7 October 2006. The list provided by the Federal Security Service (FSB) was missing at least two calls from her children.
In the New Year, perhaps thanks to the many media reports about this, a new list presented by the mobile phone company included these two calls. The company explained that the difference between the lists was due to technical reasons.
Continue reading ‘Politkovskaya: many unanswered questions…’
Friederike Behr blogs from Russia
It is the fourth week of the trial, and journalists, lawyers and victims greet each other nearly like old friends. They have a cigarette together or chat together in the corridors of the court building, every now and then being reminded to keep their voices low in order not to disturb the other hearings going on at the same time. The journalists comment on each others reporting and whether they would be satisfied with the evidence provided so far, were they members of the jury.
From my corner on the bench among the journalists I can see the jury is really focussed on what is being said and shown to them. They are made up of middle-aged men and women, several of them obviously from the Caucasus or other non-Russian ethnicity.
Continue reading ‘Anna Politkovskaya murder trial – witnesses for the prosecution’
Friederike Behr blogs from Russia on the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial
Anna Politkovskaya - murdered on 6 October 2006. ©Katja Tähjä
The jury hearing of the trial into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya has been going on now for about two weeks.
There is still strong media interest in the trial and on some days I have not been able to attend the hearing. The court official, who is in charge of organizing the media access, does not really know what to do about me. I’m the only NGO representative wanting to attend the trial.
Every morning, I have to struggle hard to get on the list of those who are allowed into the court room. Once I got in with the help of Karinna Moskalenko, one of the lawyers of Anna Politkovskaya’s family, who dragged me past the court official and told him that Amnesty International has to be at the hearing.
The journalists from Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Anna Politkovskaya worked for, get in every day and give a daily account of events in the court room. The following summary is partly based on the reporting from Novaya Gazeta:
The trial so far…
Continue reading ‘Anna Politkovskaya - the trial begins’
Friederike Behr blogs from Russia on the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial
Anna Politkovskaya - murdered on 6 October 2006. ©Katja Tähjä
Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered on 7 October 2006 in Moscow. She was shot on a Saturday afternoon, when she walked into the lift in the apartment building she lived in.
I had met her several times, one time right after Russian special forces had stormed a theatre in Moscow, where a group of men and women had taken over 800 people hostage. Anna Politkovskaya had tried to intervene and help to save the lives of those in the theatre. Subsequently, the theatre was stormed and about 150 people died.
Continue reading ‘Trial into the murder of human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya’
