Musaev: in Politkovskaya's case trifles undermined jurymen's trust

The defendants in Anna Politkovskaya's murder case were acquitted because of a plurality of trifles, which undermined the trust of the jurymen in the version of the investigation, as Murad Musaev, one of the defence advocates, believes. In his opinion, the reason is in non-professionalism of law enforcers.

The "Caucasian Knot" has already reported that on February 19 the board of jury unanimously acquitted all the defendants in the murder case, namely: Sergey Khadzhikurbanov, an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Makhmudov brothers and Pavel Ryaguzov, Lieutenant Colonel of the FSB.

According to the advocate, one of the main prosecution's evidences was the car model VAZ-2104, which was recorded by outdoor surveillance TV cameras near the scene of the crime. The investigation had asserted that it was Rustam Makhmudov's car. But when the court compared photos of two cars, it turned out that they were different: one of them had no right-hand screen-wiper and turn indication bulb in the right-hand front splasher; besides, the number plates were different. The prosecution failed to prove that this was one and the same car, as the "Izvestia" writes.

The prosecutors also presented the billing of telephone conversations. However, the advocates managed to prove that the information received from telephone operators could have been forged, and the defenders found discrepancies in billings of conversations of the defendants and Anna Politkovskaya herself.

Another proof, used by the investigation to convince the jurymen that Makhmudov brothers had to do with the murder, was the image of the gunman shot by a video camera. The inspectors tried to prove that Rustam Makhmudov was videoed. However, the defence managed to persuade the jurymen that the suspect differed from the gunman both in his height and body weight, and presented a record from Dzhabrail Makhmudov's mobile phone evidencing that the brothers were bathing in the river at that moment.

Besides, two hairs were detected on the pistol found in the scene. One hair was a human one, but the comparison showed that it belonged to none of the defendants. The other hair was a cat's one. A cat's hair was also found in the car, but the examination revealed that cats were different.

The pistol also had sweat traces, but the DNA failed to match the blood analysis of any of Makhmudov brothers.

According to Murad Musaev, the blunders made by the investigation are so obvious that the General Prosecutor's Office has not yet appealed against the "not guilty" verdict. He asserts that although juries operate in Russia for more than five years already, however, the law enforcement bodies are still unskilled to work in the conditions, when the arguments of the charge are questioned and challenged by duly qualified experts.