The Moscow Military District Court acquitted on Friday three men of involvement in the investigative journalist's murder, one day after the jury unanimously concluded that prosecutors had failed to prove the defendants' guilt.
"Given the not guilty verdict by the jury...in the Anna Politkovskaya murder case, I declare that the criminal probe will continue until the truth and identities of those involved in the crime, including the perpetrator and the person who ordered the murder have been established," Vladimir Markin said.
Judge Yevgeny Zubov ruled that the case be referred back to the Investigation Committee at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and said that the verdict could be appealed within a 10-day period.
The Moscow Military District Court also granted the acquitted - Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, brothers from Chechnya, and former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov - the right to file compensation claims after being found not guilty.
Novaya Gazeta reporter Politkovskaya, who gained international recognition for her reports of atrocities against civilians in the troubled Caucasus republic of Chechnya, was gunned down in an elevator in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006, in what police described as a contract killing.
