Colonel Tkachuk, the judge at the Moscow District Military Court, has refused to return the case to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation despite the fact that we, and the prosecutor’s office, have insisted that this be done. Both the State prosecutors and we, as the injured party, have very strong grounds for our demands.

Our demand was simple and understandable. All the shortcomings in the criminal case against those who have already been tried should be removed. That case should then be combined with the so-called main case which aims to establish who ordered the killing. Our aim is to ensure that the person behind the killing should be sent to prison, and not just his second-rank accomplices. That was the point of our petition to the court. Neither the prosecution nor the defence lawyers for the accused doubted the justice of this demand. For quite incomprehensible reasons, however, we were refused. The judge decided that the very same evidence would be discussed in the same courtroom where a jury decided that the evidence was insufficient to reach a guilty verdict. The judge did not even consider it necessary to provide any legal justification for his decision.

Moreover, he issued an unambiguous warning that the injured party — us in other words — would be “escorted” to the courtroom, i.e. forced to attend, if we refused to be present at such senseless hearings.

We remain of the view that the crime has not been solved. Meanwhile, the time left for a full investigation grows less and less. Yet instead of making effective use of the time, the State prefers to hold an imitation of a fair judicial hearing for individuals of a secondary importance, whose role in the crime is unclear and whose involvement has not been properly proven.

We do not consider it necessary to play an active part in this entertainment, thereby providing it with legitimacy. We shall closely follow the proceedings, however, so as to permit no chance that they will completely bury any hope of solving our mother’s murder.

The investigation has continued for three years. Now it has finally been transformed into a farce, in an attempt to distract public attention from the main question: “Who ordered this killing?” Such an approach demands that someone must be convicted (or acquitted?) at any cost. It shows one thing and one thing only: the State is demonstrating a complete lack of interest in solving the murder of our mother. The case has been put at the mercy of political and departmental intrigues and this means, in essence, that the true killers are being protected.

And the judge has warned: we shall be forced to attend if we refuse to be present at such senseless hearings.

Vera Politkovskaya, Ilya Politkovsky