Russia & CIS General Newswire

June 18, 2008 Wednesday

Supreme Court's Presidium upholds decision to return Klebnikov case to prosecutors

DATELINE: MOSCOW June 18

The Presidium of the Russian Supreme Court has ruled that the decision to return a criminal case into the murder of Paul Klebnikov, the editor-in-chief of Forbes Russia, to the Russian Prosecutor General's Office and to suspend the trial is lawful.

The court overturned the appeal of a Russian deputy prosecution general, who asked to void the decision of the Moscow City Court, according to which the criminal case was returned to the prosecutor's office and the trial was suspended, because one of the defendants is still being searched for.

On December 17, 2007, the Moscow City Court returned the case to the Prosecutor General's Office and declared suspect Kazbek Dukuzov wanted.

The accused include Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev, both Chechnya natives, and Moscow notary Fail Sadretdinov.

U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov was shot dead in Moscow on July 9, 2004.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the investigation has identified both the executors of the murder and those who ordered the hit. The Office says that the murder was ordered by Chechen resident Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, one of the members of the so-called government of Ichkeria.