5 accused in murder of Anna Politkovskaya plead not guilty

Five men accused of murdering Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya pleaded not guilty in aMoscow courtroom Wednesday.

Politkovskaya was shot to death in an elevator in her apartment building in October 2006 in what many suspect was a politically motivated killing and which was condemned around the world.

The trial of five of the six men accused of involvement in her death beganWednesday butis being boycotted by Politkovskaya's children, who say theproceedings were deliberately set for a date when theyand their attorneys were out of the country and could not participate. They saythe court refused to change the date when asked.

Jury selected 'frenetically'

Politkovskaya's son and daughter,Ilya Politkovsky and Vera Politkovskaya, said they were also kept from participating in the jury selection process, a right plaintiffs have under Russian law.

The twoissued a statement Tuesday calling the trial "patently illegitimate."

"We refuse to come to court, refuse to give any kind of testimony, and also refuse to acknowledge as legitimate any of Judge [Pavel]Melekhin's actions in the consideration of this criminal case," saidthe statement, published in Novaya Gazeta, theopposition newspaper for whichPolitkovskaya worked.

They urged the jurors to recuse themselves, saying, "We do not trust the procedure by which the jurors were selected so frenetically and rapidly.

"We have waited almost seven years forthe murderers toend up inthe docket, andthestate didn't bother towait afew days."

Russian newspaper Ria Novosti citeda Moscow City Court spokesperson as saying the family was "duly notified" of the jury selection and that as long as that is done, the process canproceed without the plaintiffs. The process could not be prolonged any longer, the spokesperson told the paper.

"The fact that the victim's side is not taking part in the trial does not prevent it from going on,"the spokeswoman said.

Equally critical

Politkovskaya was an investigativejournalist who was highly critical ofher country's regime and wrote extensively about the Russiangovernment's actions in the separatist republic of Chechnya and corruption in the Kremlin.

She covered the Russian-Chechen wars extensively and gave vivid accounts of thecatastrophic effect the conflict had onChechen civilians and soldiers on both sides doing the fighting and was equally critical of Russian leaders and Chechen warlords. Her accounts were widely translated in foreign newspapers.

Many in Russia suspect Politkovskaya's killing was politically motivated, but the identity of the person who ordered it has never been revealed.

Chechen businessman Lom-Ali Gaitukayev is accused of organizing the killing for a fee of $150,000. He is suspected of hiringthree of his nephews and two former police officers to carry it out.

6th accused signed plea bargain

The five men on trial Wednesday are Gaitukayev, his three nephews, Rustam, the alleged gunman,Ibragim and DzhabrailMakhmudov (the three are brothers), and former Moscow police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov.

The sixth man,former Moscow police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, wassentencedto 11 years in prison in a plea bargain last year. At the time, he implicated the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky andChechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev, saying they ordered the killing, although the lawyer for the Politkovskaya family did not give credence to the accusations.

Ibragim and DzhabrailMakhmudov and Khadzhikurbanov were acquitted in an earlier trial in 2009, but the supreme court overturned that ruling.

Russian presidentVladimir Putin condemned the killing of Politkovskaya but said her influence on Russian politics had been "extremely insignificant" and that her murder caused greater damage to Russia's image than her writings.