carrying the defendants to court was involved in a crash.
However, there may be more twists and turns before the trial finally gets under way. The Prosecutor General’s Office has demanded that the presiding judge be replaced. They accuse Judge Yevgeny Zubov of bias.
Marina Gridneva, a prosecution spokesperson, said: “The state prosecutor at the Politkovskaya murder case trial challenged the judge, pointing to an abuse of the rules of procedure.”
Lawyers of the family and the defence, however, are both against this.
“We didn’t support the appeal because we do not see any legal grounds for it,” Anna Stavitskaya, Politkovskaya family lawyer said.
The decision to reopen the trial to the public is the second such reversal in just a week.
Praising the decision, Defence lawyer Murad Musayev said “free speech and democracy have held a victory in this trial. The proceedings will be open; the press will be admitted to the courtroom.”
Musayev said the decision was reversed “because the secret has come out
