MOSCOW, November 14 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday disbanded the jury in the Anna Politkovskaya murder trial, setting a new round of jury selection for January 14, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

The court decided to disband the panel after three more jurors decided to abstain from the trial, leaving less than 12 jurors present. Earlier, one of the jurors participating in trial has been revealed as murder convict himself.

Prosecutor Maria Semenenko suggested that the quarantine in the pre-trial detention, which postponed the hearings six times, was orchestrated by attorney Murad Musayev. Musayev is presently under investigation for bribing a witness in another high-profile murder case.

Investigators allege that Musayev bribed two witnesses in January of this year while preparing his defense of Yusup Temerkhanov, who was subsequently convicted of the murder of Colonel Budanov and sentenced to 15 years in prison. The bribes were allegedly intended to convince the witnesses to give false testimonies at trial.

Novaya Gazeta newspaper journalist Politkovskaya was shot and killed in her apartment building on October 7, 2006. Her murder has been linked by some experts to her coverage of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

The five suspects include former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, Rustam, Ibragim, and Dzhabrail Makhmudov, and their uncle Lom-Ali Gaitukayev. The investigators believe that Rustam Makhmudov committed the murder with the help of his brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail, their uncle, and Khadzhikurbanov.