A Russian Court decided on Thursday that the three men accused of killing the human rights journalist Anna Politkovskaya were innocent, Reuters informs. The journalist, reporting on Chechnya and denouncing human rights breaking, was killed in Moscow on October 7, 2006.

All three suspects were Chechens - former policeman Sergey Kadzhikurbanov, Djabrail Machmudov and Ibrahim Machmudov.

Anna Politkovskaya, renowned for her acid criticism against president Putin's regime, was shot to death in her building's elevator, the same day Putin celebrated his birthday.

In spring 2005, Politkovskaya had published Putin's Russia, a book that received the best reviews abroad, accusing Putin of restraining civil freedom and being unable to separate from his KGB past.