MOSCOW, January 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Hearings into the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya were postponed until January 20 at Moscow City Court on Wednesday after one of the defendants said he had no lawyer.

Judge Pavel Melekhin appointed a new representative and postponed proceedings to give the lawyer time to study case papers.

The court was set to begin new hearings into Politkovskaya's murder on Wednesday, having appointed a new panel of jurors the day before. The previous panel was dissolved after three of its members submitted withdrawal requests.

Defendants in the case are Lom-Ali Gaitukayev, his nephews (brothers Rustam, Ibragim and Dzhabrail Makhmudov) and Sergei Khadzhikurbanov. They are charged with murder and involvement with illegal guns.

Politkovskaya, who worked as an investigative journalist with Novaya Gazeta daily, was shot dead at the age of 48 in the elevator of her apartment building in central Moscow.

Murder charges were brought against three of the five current defendants in 2009. They were tried and acquitted in 2009 but Russia’s Supreme Court overturned the verdict and ordered a new hearing.