A JUROR in the trial of three men accused of helping to organise the murder of one of Russia’s most prominent investigative reporters, Anna Politkovskaya, has publicly challenged the decision to hold it behind closed doors.
The judge, Yevgeny Zubov, had ordered the trial closed to the media on Wednesday, saying members of the jury had refused to participate if reporters were allowed in the courtroom.
But a man who identified himself as one of the jurors stepped forward on Thursday and disputed the judge’s explanation.
“None of us demanded in any categorical form that the press must not attend. I can definitely say that,” the juror, Yevgeny Kolesov, said in remarks broadcast on Ekho Moskvy radio station.
Mr Kolesov, a roofer, said that a court official had tried several times to persuade the jury to sign a statement requesting a closed trial, but that the jurors all refused.
The disclosure was a rare act of defiance in a judicial system weighted heavily in favour of state control. It threw the trial into disarray and added to the questions that have dogged the government’s investigation of a killing that sparked international outrage and renewed fears about the safety of journalists working in Russia.
Prosecutors had been scheduled to begin presenting evidence, but the judge adjourned the trial until December 1st, citing a scheduling conflict that defence lawyers said did not exist.
Politkovskaya, a fierce Kremlin critic known for her reports on human rights abuses in the restive Russian republic of Chechnya, was shot dead as she entered her Moscow apartment building on October 7th, 2006.
More than two years later, police have yet to arrest the gunman or identify who ordered and financed the attack, which investigators describe as a contract killing.
The shooting occurred on the birthday of then-president Vladimir Putin, fuelling speculation about a possible official role in the crime, perhaps involving members of the security services angered by Politkovskaya’s reporting.
Politkovskaya’s relatives, as well as colleagues at her newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, have accused the security services of obstructing the investigation by withholding evidence and leaking information that allowed the suspected gunman and others to escape.
Prosecutors have charged three men, including a former police major, with helping to organise the killing. A fourth suspect, a former colonel in the FSB, the domestic successor to the KGB, faces charges in a separate case.
Lawyers for the defendants and for Politkovskaya’s family requested an open trial in a hearing on Monday, and the judge initially agreed.
But he reversed the decision two days later, citing the fears of jury members.
Mr Kolesov, the juror, said he was stunned by the explanation when he heard it reported on the radio later that day.
“I came home and started making dinner, and I turned on Ekho Moskvy and suddenly learned that we had allegedly chickened out, that we were afraid of the press and asked the judge to remove the press,” he said.
“We are not cowards, of course. We were not afraid,” he said. “They made a laughing stock of us.”
He said a court secretary had told the jurors of the media interest in the case and suggested they request a closed trial.
“She came in several times and brought us a form, which said we wanted to bar the media because we were afraid,” Kolesov said.
Some jurors were worried cameras would be allowed in the courtroom, he said, but they unanimously agreed to let the trial begin with reporters present and “see how it went”.
He added that 19 of the 20 jurors and alternate jurors signed a letter to the judge denying they wanted the press removed.
Ekho Moskvy said it had seen an official court pass identifying Kolesov as a juror in the case.
A court spokesman declined to comment on his assertions.
A lawyer for the defence, Murad Musayev, said he believed the judge was trying to close the trial on orders from superiors.
“We will demand an open trial,” he said. – (LA Times-Washington Post service)