MOSCOW, June 26 (RAPSI) - The Russian Supreme Court on Friday reduced the sentence for Dzhabrail Makhmudov, who has been convicted for the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, by six months, RAPSI reports from courtroom.

The court recognized the verdict materially valid but excluded the weapon storage charges. According to the court, investigators could not prove that the defendants, Dzhabrail Makhmudov, Lom-Ali Gaitukayev and Rustam Makhmudov, were involved in the transfer of the weapon.

Therefore, Dzhabrail Makhmudov’s sentence was reduced from 14 to 13.5 years in prison. The outcome of the hearing did not affect the sentences of the other defendants.

The ruling came into effect on Friday.

The defense team for the convicted men, which filed the motion for the acquittal, intends to appeal the ruling in the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR), lawyer Arsen Mirzayev told journalists.

On October 7, 2006, Anna Politkovskaya, a crusading reporter with the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, was shot and killed at the age of 48 in the elevator of her central Moscow apartment building. The murder has been linked to her coverage of human rights abuses in Chechnya.

In June 2014, the Moscow City Court convicted five people for Politkovskaya’s murder. It sentenced Rustam Makhmudov and Lom-Ali Gaitukayev to life in prison. Their accomplices, brothers Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov and former police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, were sentenced to 12, 14 and 20 years in a maximum security penal colony, respectively. The court also fined them 5 million rubles ($91,600) payable to the late journalist’s children.

Former police officer Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov who was convicted of organizing the surveillance of the journalist was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Pavlyuchenkov has requested a postponement of his sentence due to poor health. The court, however, turned down his request. The ex-officer has already been escorted to a prison in the Ryazan Region.