Romanov family calls for probe into tsar's murder

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna has appealed to a Moscow tribunal, calling the last year's decision illegal and unfounded.

MOSCOW, January 15, 2010 (AFP) - Descendants of the Romanov dynasty called on Russia Friday for the reopening of a probe into the execution of the last Tsar Nicolas II, lawyers for the royal family said.

Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna -- viewed as the head of Russia's imperial dynasty by some monarchists -- has appealed to a Moscow tribunal, charging that last year's decision to close the investigation was "illegal and unfounded."

The Romanov family believes the halting of the investigation may contradict a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that Nicolas II and his family were victims of political repression, lawyer German Lukyanov told reporters in Moscow.

"The Investigative Committee seems to have found that some kind of criminals carried out the killing," he said, arguing that it was a political killing carried out on the order of the state.

The family has requested that investigators hand over a copy of their decision to close the case, Lukyanov said.

The descendants of the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917, are scattered around the world, and some contest Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna's claim to be the direct heir to the Russian throne.

Tsar Nicholas II, his German-born wife Alexandra and their five children were shot dead in the cellars of a house in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg where they were being held prisoner after the Russian revolution.