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(CNN) -- The trial of three men accused of being involved in a plot to murder Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya will take place behind closed doors, a Moscow court ruled Wednesday.
Kremlin-critic Anna Politkovskaya was killed outside her Moscow home in 2006.
Lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, who is representing Politkovskaya's family, said the Moscow District Military Court made the ruling after jurors refused to enter the courtroom because they feared being identified, The Associated Press reported.
Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic, was shot dead outside her home in the Russian capital on 7 October, 2006.
An award-winning investigative reporter, she came to prominence internationally for exposing the brutality of Russian forces and human rights abuses in Chechnya in reports that were considered extremely embarrassing for former president, and now prime minister, Vladimir Putin.
Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief at Politkovskaya's Novaya Gazeta newspaper, called the decision "shameful," but said he didn't want to criticize jurors' concerns for their safety, AP said.
Prosecutors say the man accused of pulling the trigger, Rustam Makhmudov, has fled the country. The suspects being tried on murder charges are Sergei Khadzhikurbanov -- a former Moscow police officer -- and Makhmudov's brothers, Ibragim and Dzhabrail.
Politkovskaya's death was described by media reports in Russia at the time as a contract-style killing. A CCTV camera captured a man in a white baseball cap entering the building a few moments before she was shot three times in the chest and once in the head.
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