Russia Reporter Murder Acquittals Rejected

Russia's Supreme Court has thrown out the acquittal of three men accused of murdering journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya.

Defence lawyer Murad Musayev told The Associated Press that the court reached the decision Thursday and ordered a new trial in the case.

Prosecutors had appealed against the February acquittal by a Moscow jury of the three defendants in Politkovskaya's October 2006 shooting death.

Politkovskaya angered officials with her persistent reporting of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

Her killing deepened international concerns about the risks journalists and Kremlin critics face, and added to strains in ties between then-President Vladimir Putin's government and the West.

Ethnic Chechen brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov and a former Moscow police officer, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, were accused of helping organize and arrange Politkovskaya's contract-style killing. All three were charged with murder and could be imprisoned for life if convicted.

Politkovskaya's probing reports on atrocities in Chechnya and abuses by Russian authorities angered the Kremlin but won her international acclaim. Her shooting shocked the world and widened the rift between Moscow and the West, underscoring the risks run by independent journalists and government critics while hardening the Kremlin's depiction of Russia as a nation beset by foes.