Politkovskaya Murder: Five Men Convicted
Three brothers, their uncle and a former policeman could be jailed for life - but those who ordered the killing are unknown.
Wednesday 21 May 2014 08:27, UK
Five men have been convicted over the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya - a prominent critic of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Rustam Makhmudov was the gunman who shot Ms Politkovskaya dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building.
His two brothers, their uncle and a former policeman were found to be accomplices.
Three of the men had been acquitted at a previous trial but the Supreme Court ordered a new hearing.
The five were expected to be sentenced on Wednesday and could face life in prison.
Ms Politkovskaya won international acclaim for her reports in Putin-critical newspaper Novaya Gazeta, about Russian abuses in Chechnya.
The Makhmudovs and their uncle are of Chechen origin.
The investigative journalist, who was killed aged 48, also published her reporting experiences in the book Putin's Russia, which won global acclaim.
Ms Politkovskaya was shot twice in the chest, once in the shoulder, and once, at point blank range, in the head on October 7, 2006.
Authorities have yet to ascertain who ordered her murder - prompting anger from relatives.
"We agree with the verdict, but this is only a small part of those who are guilty in the crime," the journalist's son, Ilya Politkovsky, was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency.
A spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, Sergei Markin, said "exhaustive measures" were being taken to discover who else was involved, according to the RIA agency.