The policy of secrecy that Russian courts follow is denying justice to the victims of crime, wrote Los Angeles Times in an editorial yesterday. Excerpts: Russia’s media and judicial system have not operated all that independently, so we were pleasantly surprised and hopeful last week when a military court decided to open its doors for journalists to cover the trial of three men accused as accessories in the murder of Russian reporter and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya. A day later, however, the judge reversed himself, citing the civilian jurors’ fears that publicity could put them at risk. Then a remarkable thing happened: One of the jurors went on the radio to say they hadn’t requested a closed court; rather, the court secretary had warned them of the dangers of an open trial and sought their signatures on a statement requesting a media ban. They declined.
The three defendants have denied charges that they were accomplices in the contract-style killing of Politkovskaya, who was shot in the elevator of her Moscow apartment block in October 2006. The gunman, filmed on CCTV as he entered her building, has not been captured, and it is not known who ordered the murder. She is but one of 49 journalists killed in Russia in the last 16 years. Two years ago, two men accused in the murder of the American editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Paul Klebnikov, were acquitted in a closed trial, and his murder is still unresolved. This time, human rights activists hope that an open trial will bring information about the Politkovskaya murder to light and ensure that justice is carried out. Surely the judge can find ways to guarantee the jurors’ safety and the security of state secrets while protecting the public’s interest in this trial.
