There will be a new trial for the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the reporter of the opposition newspaper Novaia Gazeta killed three years ago in her house lift. The Russian Supreme Court has, in fact, accepted the prosecutor's appeal, reversing for "significant procedural violations" the ruling of the jury that in mid-February had unanimously acquitted the three defendants Chechens.
But can we finally speak of justice for Anna? Few people believe that. The decision was, in fact, not only challenged by the defense of the defendants, who speaks of a "political decision taken at the highest level", but also by the family of the victim, who believe that a new process with old tests, already failed, can stop further investigation to discover instigator and motive.
The new process, it could just be a way to hold up the latest evidence and prove, however, the public that it applied strict justice. The court would have committed, according to the Supreme Court, significant violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure, so as to affect the issuance of a just verdict. But this choice does not have the consent of the journalist family. The two children, Vera and Ilia, although convinced of the guilt of the accused do not share the decision of the Supreme Court. "The verdict of acquittal is a perfectly reasonable and logical decision, I think that the investigators have to criticize ourselves because with these tests we could not wait for a different ruling - said the lawyer Anna Stavitskaia. – In the new process, the verdict will be the same because the tests are the same ". It will be only a total failure, a staging.
But her investigations were not always appreciated. Among them certainly one following the controversial operation (October 2002) of Russian forces in the theater of Dubrovka (at least 129 deaths among the hostages for the annihilation of terrorist). Because of her investigations she had already escaped, in 2004, for an attempted poisoning, but for her there will be a much more violent death two years later.
The case against her alleged killers was followed throughout the world and immediately after the sentence of acquittal for the defendants, Dmitri Medvedev chose to release his first interview as president to the Russian newspaper Novaia Gazeta, the Politkovskaja heading. It was a way to make a tribute to all the journalists who have been killed.
Already in 2001, Politkovskaya was forced to flee to Vienna after repeated threats received by email from Sergei Lapin, an OMON officer (a police official from the Ministry of Interior), she accused of crimes against civilians in Chechnya.
With Anna were also killed her investigations and the courage of many journalists who, in Russia as in many other parts of the world, fight every day against the power to inform their fellow citizens. The process will resume, but it is certain that the truth will never arrive.
Marianna Lepore
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