A Russian court has rejected a request from the family of Anna Politkovskaya, the Kremlic critic murdered in 2006, to halt the retrial of three men accused of involvement in her killing.

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.