 MOSCOW (AP) - The fugitive accused of shooting Russian investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya offered earlier this year to turn himself in if he were assured of an open trial by jury, a defense lawyer said Tuesday.
But the lawyer said the possibility of such a deal was ruled out after the chief investigator in the politically charged case said authorities could not provide those guarantees.
Three suspects are being tried for murder in the 2006 killing of Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic whose dogged reporting on torture and other abuses in Chechnya deepened Western worries about Russia's treatment of its citizens. But none of those suspects is accused of pulling the trigger.
Politkovskaya's family and colleagues say justice will not be done until the gunman — and whoever was behind the killing — are found and prosecuted. Authorities say they don't know who had Politkovskaya killed, and that suspected triggerman Rustam Makhmudov has fled to Western Europe.
Murad Musayev, lawyer for one of the defendants, said Makhmudov conveyed his offer from an undisclosed location through a relative "about half a year ago." He did not identify the relative.
Rustam Makhmudov is a brother of Musayev's client, Dzhabrail Makhmudov, and a second defendant, Ibragim Makhmudov. Their mother, Zalpa Makhmudova, said Monday that she believes Rustam's offer still stands, though she said she had not spoken to him recently.  She and other relatives deny knowledge of Rustam Makhmudov's whereabouts.
Musayev said Makhmudov also demanded an open trial over a 1997 kidnapping charge.
The Politkovskaya trial continued Tuesday with state prosecutor Yulia Safina displaying security-camera footage on a television screen to the jury. The footage appeared to show Politkovskaya entering her central Moscow apartment building before she was killed.
Prosecutors said other footage showed the suspects' car near the apartment building around the time of the killing.  Other evidence offered by prosecutors at Tuesday's hearing included a large map they stapled to a wall of the courtroom showing where they say they believe Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov were when Politkovskaya was shot. Photographs of the three brothers were pinned to the map.
Musayev objected vigorously, saying the map reflected nothing but the prosecutors' claims about the location of the suspects. "It is not proof. I hope and I pray that the jury did not take it as proof," Musayev said.
Judge Yevgeny Zubov overruled the objection and allowed the evidence.
Prosecutors have based their statements about the suspects' whereabouts at the time of the killing on video footage and telephone records.
The records allegedly showed Dzhabrail and Rustam Makhmudov to have been near the Politkovskaya's apartment building at the time. Prosecutors have said three nearby cellular phone masts pinpointed their position to within a few dozen meters (yards) of the building.
Musayev contended that the masts were incapable of locating phone users that accurately.
The third defendant charged with murder is Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police officer accused of organizing the slaying. Authorities say the trial is being held at a military court because a fourth defendant, Pavel Ryaguzov, is a former security service officer.
Ryaguzov is not charged in Politkovskaya's killing but is being tried together with Khadzhikurbanov because the two share alleged criminal links. |