MOSCOW, January 27 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has removed five jurors from a new jury panel of the Anna Politkovskaya murder case, the court's spokesperson Ulyana Solopova told RAPSI on Monday.

According to Solopova, five jurors told the court that they can't take part in the hearing of the case that's why they were removed from the panel. Alternate jurors will replace them, she said.

On November 14, the court disbanded the jury in the trial. 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.

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.