|
http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200908040416dowjonesdjonline000170&title=russia-opens-new-trial-in-politkovskaya-murder
MOSCOW (AFP)--A new trial into the killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya opens Wednesday, with Russia's failure to solve her case under renewed scrutiny after the murder of a close colleague.
Russia's supreme court last month annulled a February jury verdict acquitting all the suspects accused over Politkovskaya's 2006 murder, a decision widely seen as a major embarrassment for prosecutors.
The murder last month of prominent Russian rights activist Natalya Estemirova - who worked continuously with Politkovskaya to investigate abuses by Russia forces in Chechnya - has again brought the case to the fore.
"The first hearing will start Wednesday at 11:00 am (0800 GMT) and will be open to the public," Alexander Minchanovsky, a spokesman for the military court where the trial is to held, told AFP.
Politkovsksya, who was sharply critical of Russia's strongman Vladimir Putin and his policies in Chechnya, was gunned down in the stairwell of her appartment building on on October 7, 2006 in an apparent contract killing.
The suspects are all accused of being accessories to the murder and the authorities have still failed to find the triggerman, let alone identify the mastermind of the killing.
Politkovskaya's family say the entire investigation has been mishandled. Instead of a retrial, her daughter Vera and son Ilya are calling for a new investigation into the murder of the journalist.
"On Wednesday we will insist that the case be sent back to investigators," Ilya Politkovsky told AFP.
Of the suspects, Chechen brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov are accused of acting as drivers at the murder scene for the killer, who prosecutors say was a third brother, Rustam, who is still at large.
Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police investigator is charged with providing logistical assistance for the killing.
One of Politkovskaya's former editors at her newspaper the Novaya Gazeta - which has seen four of its journalists murdered since 2001 - also said the case clearly required a new investigation.
"Jury members (at the first trial) told me the investigation was incomplete and they lacked evidence for a guilty verdict," the daily's deputy editor Sergei Sokolov told AFP.
"The investigators were obstructed in their work," he said without saying who had conspired to impede the investigation.
Rights groups say the blatant failure of Russian authorities' to bring Politkovskaya's killers to justice has created a climate of impunity that increases the danger of their work, especially in the restive North Caucasus region.
03 August 2009, 10:07
Russian Supreme Court upholds banning Islamic organization as extremist
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=6282
Moscow, August 3, Interfax - The Appeal Board of the Russian Supreme Court has upheld a ruling on finding the religious organization Tablighi Jamaat as extremist and banning its activities in Russia.
"The decision has been left unchanged, and the appeal was turned down," Supreme Court spokesman Pavel Odintsov told Interfax.
The Supreme Court granted a Prosecutor General's Office request on finding Tablighi Jamaat as an extremist organization in early May.
Tablighi Jamaat, whose headquarters are in India, is engaged in propagating Islam worldwide.
Media sometimes call the organization "an invisible legion of jihad."
Meanwhile, the Prosecutor General's Office website reported that the court had resolved that the activities of Tablighi Jamaat's structural divisions "threaten interethnic and inter-religious stability in Russian society and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation."
"The said religious association's purposes include the establishment of global supremacy through disseminating a radical form of Islam and the foundation of a unified Islamic state called the Global Caliphate on the basis of regions with traditionally Muslim populations," it said.
The law enforcement agencies of some Central Asian states consider Tablighi Jamaat a potential threat to their national security. In Tajikistan, Tablighi Jamaat's activities were earlier banned by a court.
Tablighi Jamaat is not officially registered anywhere.
FSB officer convicted for organising illegal migration
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=14202973&PageNum=0
KALININGRAD, August 4 (Itar-Tass) - A military servicewoman of the Russian Federal Security Service’s (FSB) border guard department for the Kaliningrad region has been found by a military court guilty of organising illegal migration of foreigners and forgery by an official.
“The head of the border control unit of the Khrabrovo-Aeroport checkpoint, Senior Lieutenant Irina Oliferchuk at the request of her acquaintance was rubberstamping passports of foreigners on arrivals or departures to and from the RF territory,” investigator of special cases Sergei Neilenko told Itar-Tass.
In fact, foreign citizens after registering in the Kaliningrad region based on the “in absentia” border control stamps, continued to illegally stay in Russia. In the period from November 2008 to February 2009, the FSB officer registered such kind of services for 8 citizens of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The military court imposed a fine of 100 thousand roubles on Oliferchuk.
Moscow police seize contraband from India, China
http://ptinews.com/news/209895_Moscow-police-seize-contraband-from-India--China
Moscow, Aug 3 (PTI) Russian police have seized contraband goods worth USD 29 million from India, Afghanistan, China and Turkey from a hotel premises.
The contraband goods were manufactured in India, Afghanistan, China and Turkey and there were no covering documents to confirm the legitimacy of the presence of these goods in Russia, Department for combating economic crimes (DEB) said today.
"According to preliminary estimates, the warehouse of the hotel Sevastopolskaya contained contraband goods worth at least USD 29 million," the economic crimes department added.
As per the officials, an inspection of the goods seized ascertained that most of the clothes, accessories and perfumery products were counterfeit in their production.
DEB personnel also claimed to have stopped a large channel through which Chinese goods were smuggled into the country.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: | 
