MOSCOW: One of three Chechen brothers currently on trial for the 2006 murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been shot in the leg, his defence lawyer said yesterday.
Dzhabrail Makhmudov has been hospitalised in Moscow with a gunshot wound to his thigh, lawyer Murad Musayev wrote on Facebook, adding that doctors said he was lucky to be alive after the bullet went clean through his leg, just missing an artery.
Musayev complained that no police arrived at the scene overnight, despite the firing of a shot.
His client is free to move around Moscow but subject to travel restrictions as a jury trial is in progress.
The lawyer linked the shooting to the trial in an interview with Moscow Echo radio station, saying: “I absolutely do not rule out that what happened yesterday could be linked to our active position in court.
“The people who followed Politkovskaya, who killed Politkovskaya, are at large.”
In a hospital bed interview, Makhmudov told Life News website that the attackers hit him on the head as well as shooting him.
AFP
