Anna Politkovskaya was killed outside her apartment in Moscow in October 2006 [AFP]

Lawyers for the journalist's family had asked for the case to be returned to prosecutors for a new investigation into the murder.

But a court ruled that the retrial would go ahead with judge Nikolai Tkachuk on Friday ordering a jury to be selected at a hearing for September.

Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist who had criticised Vladimir Putin, Russia's then-president, was gunned down outside her apartment in Moscow three years ago in an apparent contract killing.

Democracy 'strangled'

The retrial at a military court in Moscow, Russia's capital, follows a decision by the country's supreme court to overturn acquittal verdicts on the suspects in a previous trial.

Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, two brothers, are accused of acting as drivers at the murder scene for the killer, who prosecutors say was a third brother, Rustam, who is still at large.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, a former police investigator, is charged with providing logistical assistance for the killing.

Politkovskaya had written dozens of articles for the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and a book called Putin's Russia, accusing the former president of using the Chechen conflict to strangle democracy in the country.

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