The trial of the Chechen human rights defender’s murderers will be open to the public.

 
Below is an article published by the NY times:

A judge ruled on Monday [17 November 2008] that the trial of three men accused of involvement in the killing of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya should be open to the public, responding to her family’s concern that secret proceedings would harm the case.

Ms. Politkovskaya was a crusading opposition journalist who covered the war in Chechnya and often criticized the Kremlin. Her killing in October 2006 brought widespread condemnation. She was gunned down as she entered her apartment building.

The authorities have acknowledged that her assailant is still at large, but they have charged three men with providing logistical support for the killing.

The judge, Yevgeny Zubov, warned that he would close the trial if there was evidence of jury tampering or other misconduct.

A lawyer for the Politkovskaya family, Karinna Moskalenko, said the decision would add to the credibility of the verdict. “The public, especially in Anna’s case, they can and they must and they have to have the right to follow this case,” she said.

The case is being heard in a Moscow military court because of a fourth defendant, Pavel Ryaguzov, a former officer in the F.S.B., a successor to the K.G.B. He is accused of criminal ties to the other defendants, but not of a role in the killing itself.

Ms. Politkovskaya’s family and editors at the newspaper where she worked, Novaya Gazeta, have asserted that the authorities have done a poor job trying to find whoever ordered the killing.

Prosecutors have denied that the government had any role in the killing, maintaining that it was arranged by someone who wanted to discredit the Kremlin.

The judge’s decision came on a day when an attack on another journalist was drawing attention in Russia. The journalist, Mikhail Beketov, editor of a newspaper in a Moscow suburb, suffered severe injuries in a beating last week [November 2008].

He had written about corruption and sought to rally opposition to a local government plan to clear a forest for a road. The identities of his attackers were not known, the authorities said.