The lawyer representing the family of murdered opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has alleged that potential jurors may be too scared to take part in the case against his alleged killers.

The Moscow District Military Court was unable to form a jury for the Nemtsov trial on Wednesday after 45 of the 59 potential jurors refused to be involved in the Nemtsov case for “personal reasons.”



“It's suspicious that so many people [refused to serve],” said lawyer Vadim Prokhorov. “It seems to me that people are simply scared of whoever ordered this crime,” he told the Interfax news agency Wednesday.

The jury selection process is still ongoing, but it may take some time before a new committee is formed, said Prokhorov.

The court will repeat its jury selection process on Sept. 28.

Boris Nemtsov was fatally shot in the back in a drive-by shooting while walking across Moscow's Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, close to Red Square, on Feb. 27, 2015.