The final arguments in the trial of four men accused of being involved in the murder of Kremlin-critical Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya are expected to be made in a Moscow court on Monday,
dpareported.
After a four-month trial, the court is now due to hear closing arguments from the state prosecutor and defence to determine whether and in what respect the four accused were involved in organizing the murder of Politkovskaya, who was gunned down in front of her apartment building in Moscow on October 7, 2006.
The men are not directly accused of carrying out the killing or ordering it. An international search is ongoing for the main murder suspect, Chechen Rustam Makhmudov.
Colleagues and friends of Politkovskaya have accused Russian authorities of not making sufficient efforts to investigate the murder.
Politkovskaya had become well known, in Russia and internationally, for her reports in the Novaya Gazeta newspaper condemning Moscow's pursuit of the conflict in Chechnya.
Lawyers for two brothers of Makhmudov, who are among the four accused, have said they will appeal any conviction.
In January, another journalist of the Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Baburova, and a human rights lawyer who had previously acted for Politkovskaya were murdered in central Moscow.