Anna Politkovskaya murder trial: key figures

Russia’s most famous opposition journalist and human rights advocate, Anna Politkovskaya, 48, was gunned down in the lift of her Moscow apartment block on 7 October 2006. A bitter critic of the then president, Vladimir Putin, she had reported extensively on human rights abuses in Chechnya and two brutal Kremlin wars. In her writings and books, Politkovskaya had eerily foreshadowed her own violent death. After her murder, Putin dismissed her as 'insignificant' and 'well-known only in the west' Photograph: Murdo Macleod

Dzhabrail and Ibraghim Makhmudov are two young Chechen brothers who were today acquitted of acting as accomplices in plotting Politkovskaya’s murder. They were accused of staking out her Moscow flat in the days beforehand, and driving the alleged killer – third brother, Rustam – to the scene. Both said they had nothing to do with her assassination. Photograph: ALEXANDER NATRUSKIN/REUTERS

Security camera footage shown on a Russian NTV channel broadcast of a man suspected of the murder. Rustam Makhmudov is the alleged killer. Investigators say he is the narrow-shouldered assassin captured on camera from behind while entering Politkovskaya’s building. Mobile phone evidence shown at the trial, however, revealed that Rustam Makhmudov has broad shoulders, raising doubts as to his guilt. Prosecutors say he has fled Russia, and his whereabouts are unknown Photograph: NTV/AFP/Getty Images

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former Moscow police officer, was today acquitted of charges that he was the alleged organiser and brains behind the plot. Prosecutors said he arranged the hit and obtained the murder weapon. Khadzhikurbanov dismissed these claims and pointed to the fact that he was attending his aunt’s birthday party when the journalist was shot Photograph: Sergey Ponomarev/AP

Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Ryaguzov is a serving officer with the FSB, Russia’s shadowy spy agency, and played a crucial role in discovering Politkovskaya’s Moscow address. He told investigators he received a request before the murder to find out where she lived. In court, however, he retracted his testimony. Ryaguzov was on trial with the three other defendants, but was formally charged in an unrelated case for beating up a businessman. He was acquitted of that charge Photograph: AFP

Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, the uncle of the Makhmudov brothers and an FSB agent, is from the same Chechen town of Achkhoy-Martan. It was Gaitukayev who allegedly received the order to murder Politkovskaya. Lawyers claim that Gaitukayev, in prison for the attempted killing of a businessman, passed the assignment on to Khadzhikurbanov. Gaitukayev was a close FSB colleague of Ryaguzov and appeared in the trial as a witness Photograph: Mikhail Pochuev/Kommersant

A representative of the court where the trial was held. Yevgeny Zuvov, the judge, attracted much ridicule after announcing the case would be held in secret because the jury had objected to the media’s presence. He was forced to reverse the decision after a juror revealed this wasn’t true – raising strong suspicions of outside interference. He often seemed bored during the trial Photograph: Alexey Sazonov/AFP/Getty Images

Karina Moskalenko is the lawyer for Politkovskaya’s family and a human rights advocate. In an emotional address to the jury, Moskalenko suggested that Politkovskaya’s real killers had yet to be caught, and raised the possibility that the defendants had been set up Photograph: Alexey Sazonov/AFP/Getty Images