Fugitive in Russia reporter death wants trial

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A fugitive suspected of murdering Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya two years ago is prepared to surrender if he is guaranteed a fair trial, a lawyer in the case said on Tuesday.

Chechen Rustam Makhmudov is on the run from Russian investigators who suspect he shot the anti-Kremlin reporter in her central Moscow apartment building after she returned from a shopping trip.

"He wants to turn himself in but needs some security guarantees," lawyer Murat Musayev said outside the central Moscow couthouse where he is defending Makhmudov's two brothers accused of being accomplices in the murder.

"He submitted this request to the investigators several months ago."

Rustam's brothers have denied the charges and their parents have said the three men are not guilty.

Politkovskaya's murder triggered outrage in the West where she was renowned for her human rights reporting in the second war between rebels and Russian forces in southern region of Chechnya which started in 1999.

The trial of Makhmudov's brothers and another man for assisting in the murder is considered a test of Russia's justice system which previously has failed to convict the main suspects in murder cases.

But Politkovskaya's family have said the case is incomplete as neither the main suspect nor the person who paid for the murder have been captured.

On Sunday, Russia's chief prosecutor said his team was closing in on both suspects who they believe have fled the country.

(Reporting by Aydar Buribaev, writing by James Kilner; editing by Michael Roddy)