WEEK THREE

Monday, 1 December

11.30 am As part of the investigation into Anna Politkovskaya’s murder, the prosecution informed the jury, all the phones on which calls were made in and around her apartment block on the day she was killed were identified. This information showed that one of the accused made repeated calls from the building that day.

The jury were told of two phone numbers that, according to the investigators, belonged respectively to the accused Djabrail Makhmudov and to a certain Hava Dischiva. The prosecutor asked Makhmudov to explain his relations with Dischiva or if he knew her at all. Makhmudov refused to answer: “I do not deny that this is my number. But I shall give all my testimony after the prosecution have presented their evidence.”

2.05 pm The first witnesses for the prosecution took the stand.

For the most part the questions concerned the numbers of the phones used by the Makhmudov brothers. The first to be cross-examined was Akham Pasha Kukayev, a close friend of Djabrail Makhmudov. He currently works as an aide to the Duma deputy Adam Demilkhanov, former deputy premier of Chechnya and right hand of Ramzan Kadyrov.

Kukayev told the court that he and Makhmudov often rang each other up and that he had Makhmudov’s number in his SIM card. As concerns the phone number of Ibragim Makhmudov, with whom the witness also kept in touch, Kukayev did not have a clear recollection. The prosecutor then read from the statements given by this witness during the investigation. Ibragim Makhmudov’s telephone number, it turned out, was also in the same SIM card. Kukayev thought he had lost this card, incidentally,  but when he was being interrogated by the investigators they told him that following the arrest of the Makhmudov brothers it had been found in Djabrail’s apartment. Kukayev said that he had lived there for some time.

The prosecution tried to discover if the witness was acquainted with the Makhmudovs’ uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev. Kukayev answered that he did not know him. Judge Zubov refused to allow the prosecutor’s next question, as to whether Kukayev knew for what crime Gaitukayev had been sentenced. During cross-examination, however, it transpired that Kukayev had once gone with the Makhmudovs to deliver a parcel to the pre-trial detention centre where Gaitukayev was then being held.

The next witness was a student acquaintance of Ibragim Makhmudov from a Moscow college of higher education. She said that Ibragim rang her from various phones and she remembered some of the numbers. The phone numbers coincided with the information of the investigators. The prosecution asked the witness questions concerning Movsar Isayev, whom the young woman had met several times together with Ibragim. He was convicted in Riga for attempting to carry out a contract killing. However, the judge again disallowed the question.

Tuesday, 2 December

10.30 am The court staff attached a map of central Moscow to the wall, showing the area of Lesnaya Street and the Garden Ring where they intersect with Malaya Dmitrovka Street.

On the map were two photographs of Anna Politkovskaya. One showed her on the Garden Ring when she was driving home from the Ramstor supermarket; next to that  photograph was a picture of Ibragim Makhmudov. The second photograph of Anna Politkovskaya, at the scene of her murder, was next to a picture of Rustam Makhmudov. On Miusskaya Street, not far away from the crime scene, was a photograph of the third brother Djabrail Makhmudov. Mobile phone masts were also indicated on the map.

11.30 am The prosecutors were about to describe the map and show the video recordings made by the external security cameras over the stairwell entrances to 8/12 Lesnaya Street and the VTB24 bank next door. The lawyers for the accused objected, however, Murad Musayev acting as their spokesman. He was not happy that someone from the team of investigators  was in charge of the screening. The judge accepted the complaint and declared a 10-minute interval while an ordinary technician was brought in to push the buttons.

12.30 pm  The technician they found was the systems manager for the court. Defence attorney Musayev raised new objections. He did not approve of the map which he dismissed as “entertainment”, a “Picasso daub”. The judge asked the jury and the press to leave the courtroom: it was necessary to deal with procedural issues.

1.45 pm When the hearing resumed billing details for the phone conversations of the brothers Makhmudov were projected onto a screen. The prosecutors described the map and showed all the telephone masts displayed there.

“You haven’t taken any measurements!” interrupted Musayev.

“We’ve measured everything,” the prosecutor parried.

Despite Musayev’s efforts the prosecutors were able to show the jury the range of the mobile phone masts that made it possible to determine what calls the accused made to each other. The prosecution also used the map to give a visual impression of the routes taken by the killer as he moved towards Politkovskaya’s apartment block; by the journalist herself; and the location at that time, according to the investigators, of the accused.

The prosecutors showed video recordings from the security cameras. These confirmed that on 7 October a VAZ-2104 automobile drove along Alexander Nevsky Street and parked outside No 10 on that street at 2.24 pm. The cameras showed that at 3.55 pm a man got out of the car “in dark clothing, wearing a dark-coloured baseball cap and something resembling a raincoat or a jacket draped over his arm”. The unidentified individual moved towards 8/12 Lesnaya Street and at 3.56 pm entered stairwell No 2a. At 4.06 pm the camera showed Anna Politkovskaya approaching the entrance. A minute later, at 4.07 pm, a man in a baseball cap (his face was not visible) ran out of the door and set off towards Novoslobodskaya metro station.

The prosecution added that from 3.56 to 4.07 pm no one entered or left stairwell 2a. The prosecutors paid particular attention to the VAZ-2104 automobile and for this purpose cross-examined the accused Ibragim Makhmudov. He said he had the use of the car since autumn 2006 when it was given to him by his brother Rustam. In November that year Djabrail began using the car and then Ibragim again had the use of it. Sometimes Movsar Isayev drove the car.

“Since you have mentioned Rustam, let me ask: do you know his present location?”

A pause ensued. The lawyer Musayev tried to shout something.

“No, I don’t know,” replied Ibragim. “How could I? I’m in prison.”

PS  Wednesday, 3 December, was devoted to the weapon used in the murder and the specialist examination which established that the weapon had been in that car.

Questions that demand an answer

The uncle of the Makhmudovs, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev is well known in the Russian criminal world as a member of the Lazanskaya gang. He was found guilty of attempting to organise the contract killing of Ukrainian businessman Gennady Korban. In August 2006 Gaitukayev was arrested and, while in pre-trial detention, maintained contact by mobile phone with all the accused: the Makhmudov brothers, Sergei Khadjikurbanov and FSB lieutenant-colonel Pavel Ryaguzov, whose agent he was.

It is known that the FSB tapped Gaitukayev’s mobile phone conversations. Where are the transcripts of those conversations, in particular from late September to mid-October 2006? Why is there no record of agent Gaitukayev or copies of his dossier, reports as an agent and reports by his supervisor in the case documentation?

In autumn 2006 three special teams were despatched to Moscow from Chechnya. After Anna’s murder the former mayor of Grozny Bislan Gantemirov named all the members of these teams in the presence of a high-ranking officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Gantemirov suggested that they had been sent, respectively, to kill him, GRU officer Movladi Baisarov and Anna Politkovskaya. The members of one team were accidentally arrested by the Moscow police with the equipment for such an assassination in the boot of their car. They were then released.

Why did no one follow up this intelligence report about special teams from Chechnya? Why was the murder of Baisarov in the centre of Moscow not averted? What role in this vendetta was played by Adam Demilkhanov, former Chechen deputy premier responsible for security, who is currently a Duma deputy from Chechnya? GRU officer Sulim Yamadayev said that Demilkhanov was involved in the operation to get rid of Baisarov; his aide Akham Kukayev was friendly with those now accused of involvement in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya.