Moscow  - The son and daughter of slain investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya took the stand in her murder trial Thursday, talking about their mother's growing sense of threat in the days before her death, news agency Interfax reported.

"She warned me she had seen strange people hanging outside the entrance of the apartment building that weren't there earlier, and told me to be cautious," said Politkovskaya's daughter Vera, who moved in with her mother about one week before she was killed.

Three men are on trial at Moscow's Military Court accused of the murder of Politkovskaya, gunned down in a contract-style killing in the elevator of her apartment building in
2006.

Vera Politkovskaya said her mother "saw something" suspicious in that the men outside her apartment building did not smell of drink and were not alcoholics but looked out of place.

"She published many different articles in connection with which her safety was threatened," Vera Politkovskaya said.

Politkovskaya's children said over five years there had been signs that the journalist's life had been threatened.

"Basically, though, mother tried to protect us from that kind of knowledge and shared her concerns with trusted colleagues at the newspaper," her son Ilya Politkovsky said during testimony Thursday.

The award-winning journalist for the daily Novaya Gazeta reported on alleged human rights abuses by the Kremlin during two wars in Chechnya in the early 1990s.

Her death shocked the international community and raised concerns about crackdowns on Kremlin-critical reporters under former president Vladimir Putin.

Putin, who was constitutionally barred from standing for a third consecutive term, ceded the Kremlin office to his handpicked successor Dmitry Medvedev in May. Putin is now serving as premier. (dpa)