On Thursday the Supreme Court overturned the verdict in the case of the homicide of Politkovskaya, satisfying an appeal by the procurator general, and directed that the case be reexamined.

Attorney Anna Stavitskaya reported to RIA ‘Novosti' that the children of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya do not agree with the Russian Supreme Court's overturning of the verdict in the case.

«The victim's side was completely in agreement with the verdict. We did not appeal, and we believe that there is no basis for this ruling,» said Stavitskaya.

In February of this year jurors unanimously found the accused innocent of the murder of Politkovskaya. After the verdict was read, the figures in the case — the brothers Ibrahim and Jabrail Makhmudov, as well as former Interior Ministry officer Sergey Khajikurbanov — were released from custody, though Khajikurbanov was subsequently arrested in connection with a charge of extorting 350 thousand US dollars from the main witness in the case, Dmitriy Pavlyuchenkov.

According to the attorney, there had been no procedural errors in the course of the trial.

Stavitskaya stressed that in such a legal case with such evidence there could be no other result other than the verdict.

«An innocent verdict — is a fully logical and reasonable decision. It seems to me that the investigators should kick themselves, because with such evidence there could not have been any other decision,» she noted.

The attorney emphasized that during a repeat examination of the case the plaintiffs' defense will file a petition with the procurator to recover case materials in order to remedy the errors.

Anna Politkovskaya was killed on the evening of October 7^th, 2006, in the stairwell of her home on Lesnaya Street in Moscow. Yuri Chaika, Procurator General of Russia, took personal control of this investigation. On his orders the directorate for investigating extremely important cases took up the matter. The investigation's main direction was that the murder was connected with the famous journalist's professional activities.

‘Argumenty I Fakty’ (‘Arguments and Facts’), June 25^th, 2009

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