Prosecutors push to move the Dzhabrail Makhmudov case into a separate proceeding after the suspect in the murder of prominent Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, sustained a gunshot wound in an alleged assassination attempt.
Makhmudov was brought to Moscow’s Botkin hospital at around 23:00
MSK on Wednesday. He was treated by the doctors and currently
remains in stable condition.
"An assassination attempt was made on the life of my client,”
Murad Musaev, Makhmudov‘s lawyer, wrote on his Facebook page.
“He was wounded by a firearm and just underwent surgery. The
shooter, the number of shots made and the weapon used aren’t
established yet.”
According to the lawyer, the bullet hit Makhmudov in the left
thigh and went right through “just a millimeter away from the
femoral artery.”
"The doctors said Dzhabrail was ‘damn lucky’. If there was a
half-degree shift in the bullet’s direction it might’ve well cost
him his life,” Musaev added.
The injury prevented Makhmudov from arriving at the Moscow court
for the Politkovskaya murder case hearings on Thursday.
This allowed the prosecution to ask the judge to suspend the case
against Makhmudov as “a gunshot wound means that it’s a
serious wound.”
Makhmudov‘s lawyer spoke out against the move as the delay puts
his client at a disadvantage, promising that the defendant will
be able to return to court on crutches within a week.
The decision on the issue will be made on August 19 after the
court receives information of Makhmudov‘s condition and
approximate date of his recovery from the medics at the Botkin
hospital.
Investigative journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, who worked for
opposition-minded Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was shot at the
entrance of her Moscow apartment building on October 7, 2006.
The investigators believe the journalist’s assassination was
linked to her work as she was famous for writing about human
rights abuses in Russia’s Republic of Chechnya.
Dzhabrail Makhmudov is named in the case together with his two
brothers Rustam and Ibrahim, his uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukaev and
ex-police officer Sergey Khadzhikurbanov.
The investigators believe that Gaitukaev, who is sentenced 15
year in prison for a different crime, and Khadzhikurbanov were
the organizers of the killing, with Rustam Makhmudov acting as
the executor.
Dzhabrail Makhmudov allegedly kept tabs on Politkovskaya together
with brother Ibrahim and also drove the suspected murderer away
from the crime scene.
Another person involved in the case – former law enforcement
officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov – was sentenced to 11 years behind
bars in this March after admitting to tracking the journalist and
providing the suspected murderer with a gun.
The police have failed to establish the name of the person or
organization, which ordered Politkovskaya’s killing.
The Makhmudov brothers, Gaitukaev and Khadzhikurbanov have been
already tried in the same case back in 2009 and were found not
guilty.
But several months later the acquittal the verdict was annulled,
and the case was sent back for retrial.