Same judge will run Anna Politkovskaya's murder case

Today Evgeniy Zubov, Judge of the Moscow Regional Military Court, has refused to self-disqualify from the process on the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, journalist of the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper.

The judge has treated the arguments of the state prosecution as invalid and stated that the arguments are not confirmed by actual circumstances. The defence and the suffered party voiced against the challenge. Thus, Evgeniy Zubov will continue to conduct the trial on Politkovskaya's case. So far, the jurymen and journalists are not admitted to the courtroom, since procedural issues are considered there, the "Gazeta.RU" reports.

The Moscow Regional Military Court plans to cope with Anna Politkovskaya's case within 45 days.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has welcomed the decision of Judge Evgeniy Zubov to lift the ban on journalists' presence at the trial of three suspects of committing the murder.

"The public, press, and even the jurymen want to have the process open for the media," said Nina Ognyanova, coordinator of the programme of the Committee to Protect Journalists for Europe and Middle Asia. "Justice needs absolute transparency."