Politkovskaya Case Reopened

In another strange twist in the murder case of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the presiding judge reopened the case just one day after a Moscow jury acquitted three suspects of aiding in the murder.

Politkovskaya, who wrote about Russia’s brutal wars in Chechnya and was an outspoken critic of then-President Vladimir Putin, was shot contract-style on Putin’s 56^th birthday in October 2006.

After presiding over a trial that was at times bizarre and was criticized for not bringing the real murderer(s) to justice, Judge Yevgeni Zubov has ordered the Russian Investigative Committee to reopen the case and start from scratch.

What that might mean for the two Chechen brothers and the former Moscow policeman acquitted last Thursday is still not clear. But what is clear is that the original trial did not make Russian justice look good. The Christian Science Monitor recaps:

Critics complain that the three-month trial was marred by repeated irregularities and efforts to bar public observers. The case against the three “small fry” defendants was full of holes, they say, and at no time did prosecutors produce or even name suspects accused of actually killing Politkovskaya or the mastermind who ordered her death.

“We believe the defendants who have been set free were actually involved in the murder,” says Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor of the crusading weekly Novaya Gazeta – Politkovskaya’s employer – which conducted its own parallel investigation into the assassination. “But we respect the verdict of the jury. The problem is that our legal system is corrupt from top to bottom, and one part of the system protects the other. They make it nearly impossible to get to the bottom of this.”

Other problems included a half-hearted investigation, a shoddy trial in which evidence went missing, and the use of anti-Russian conspiracy theories by officials to explain Politkovskaya’s murder. But the biggest problem the investigation faced was stonewalling from Russia’s notorious security service. The Sunday Herald (Scotland) reckons that the same problem will probably derail the new investigation as well:

Initially, the investigation seemed to be going well but when investigators uncovered disturbing connections to the FSB - the successor to the KGB - the probe hit a brick wall. The FSB repeatedly blocked requests for information on the grounds that it was classified and insisted on parts of the trial being held in secret. Investigators were prevented from examining the computer and the office belonging to the former FSB officer enmeshed in the case and were prevented from learning the identity of his FSB colleagues. The identity of a man and a woman clearly caught on CCTV following Politkovskaya in a supermarket before she was killed was also - incredibly - never established. More importantly, the identity of the person who ordered the murder was never revealed.

Bulgaria Faces Confidence Vote

Bulgarian opposition parties have called for the seventh no-confidence vote against the Socialist-led government since it took power in 2005. Reuters reports:

'The government does not react adequately to the unfolding economic crisis, there is no will to fight corruption and organised crime,' a statement backing the motion said.

Dozens of students and green activists rallied in front of parliament on Wednesday in a sixth week of anti-government protests, seeking measures against the economic crisis and better living standards. Some held banners, reading 'Stop Stealing!', 'Enough Corruption!.' The protests have so far failed to attract large numbers and do not threaten the government for now, observers say.

The government is expected to survive the vote.

Meanwhile, a luxury bar in downtown Sofia was gutted in a bombing last week. The owner, according to the Sofia news agency Novinite, is the “scandalous” Nikolay Metodiev, also known as “The Chicken.” Metodiev was recently acquitted of smuggling charges.

In other organized crime news, Europol’s director visited Bulgaria last week and conferred with Interior Minister Mihail Mikov on strategies to fight organized crime and terrorism.

Dacic: Why a New White Book

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic, in a Q&A interview with radio/internet/television station B92, tried to explain why Serbia needs a new White Book, or compendium on organized crime when asked this question:

You want a new White Book to be written. Why do you want it to be classified as confidential this time around? What is the purpose of writing such a book?! Surely the police should simply provide evidence so that criminals can be brought to court.

Dacic: One of the priorities in 2009 is fighting organized crime. I have outlined several times that there is a difference between what the police know about organized crime and what is going to be written in the White Book. There is a huge difference between what we know and the facts that are needed to launch a serious prosecution. Hence, the White Book should not be a publicly available document.

Rather, it should be intended for the eyes of the police and state services only. Combating organized crime cannot be handled by the police alone. This process needs to be accompanied by relevant laws and bylaws, as well as being given support by the judicial system, prosecution office and courts. We have enjoyed solid communication with the prosecution, but it is different with courts. Court cases can wait for years to be processed and sentencing can last just as long. During that time criminals are freely roaming the streets and we are subjected to criticism despite the police having nothing to do with that whatsoever.

Dacic also has his hands full with an investigation into the country’s most notorious prison inmate, Milorad Ulemek, who was found with a plastic pistol in his cell last week and was apparently planning to escape. Ulemek is serving a 40-year prison sentence for the 2003 murder of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Measures to tighten security around Ulemek have included changing all of Ulemek’s guards, and moving four of his fellow Zemun Clan jailbirds from the prison they share with Ulemek in Belgrade to a provincial jail in the eastern town of Pozarevac.

Skype Faces Pressure by EU Organization

Conversations on Skype could be monitored in Europe if a European Union (EU) judicial organization can figure out how to do it, reports PC World.

While the police can get a court order to tap a suspect's land line and mobile phone, it is currently impossible to get a similar order for Internet calls on both sides of the Atlantic.

Eurojust, a European Union agency responsible for coordinating judicial investigations across different jurisdictions announced Friday the opening of an investigation involving all 27 countries of the European Union.

"We will bring investigators from all 27 member states together to find a common approach to this problem," said Joannes Thuy, a spokesman for Eurojust based in The Hague in the Netherlands.

The purpose of Eurojust's coordination role is to overcome "the technical and judicial obstacles to the interception of Internet telephony systems," Eurojust said.

Italy Corruption New Includes Brit

A Milan court last week found a British lawyer guilty of lying under oath to protect Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, reports the International Herald Tribune. The court sentenced lawyer David Mills to four and a half years in prison for taking $600,000 in exchange for his false testimony in two of Berlusconi’s corruption trials in the 1990s. Under Italian law, Mills will serve no time until the case passes through two levels of appeals.

Also last week, police arrested eight people – gangsters, businessmen and local politicians – in connection with allegedly using corrupt practices and bribes to gain control of a Sicilian wind farm project worth hundreds of millions of euros.

Investigators discovered that luxury cars and thousands of euros in bribes were given to politicians to ensure that a Mafia-backed company won the lucrative public contract.

The suspects also illegally accessed the municipality's safe to copy the proposal of a rival company, which was later excluded from the bidding.

"All activities were controlled by these businessmen tied to Cosa Nostra," police official Giuseppe Linares told Italy's Sky TV. "Not only the construction of the plant, but also all the subcontracts for building materials: concrete, carpentry, electric systems and metal."