Retrial In Russia Over U.S. Editor's Death

Russia's highest court on Thursday overturned the acquittal of three suspects in the killing of U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov and ordered a new trial.

Klebnikov, 41, an American of Russian origin who was editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, was gunned down outside its Moscow offices in July 2004. The high-profile killing was linked by many to his investigative work probing corruption and the shadowy business world in Russia, but it remains unsolved.

The court, hearing an appeal by prosecutors and the victim's lawyers, said a new trial should be held with a new judge, said Supreme Court spokesman Pavel Odintsov.

Two men were placed on trial on charges of conducting the killing on behalf of a Chechen separatist who was the subject of a critical book written by Klebnikov, but they and another man on trial on related charges were acquitted by a jury.

Klebnikov's brother, Michael, told The Associated Press that the family was happy with the court's decision.

"We are satisfied, we are pleased with the decision of the Supreme Court," Klebnikov said in a telephone interview from New York. "That shows that the Russian legal system can correct its own mistakes."

However, the U.S. journalist's family expressed disappointment at the failure to find those who ordered the murder and called for the next trial, unlike the first, to be open to the public.

"Despite this positive news, we as a family are deeply disappointed that Paul's killers and those who ordered this vicious crime are still at large two years after the fact. We take this opportunity to ask that the government redouble its effort to identify and bring the masterminds of this crime to justice. A crime like this should not remain unsolved for so long," a statement said.

Prosecutors claimed the defendants, Kazbek Dukuzov, 32, and Musa Vakhayev, 42, had killed Klebnikov on behalf of Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev, who was the subject of Klebnikov's book, "Conversations With a Barbarian." Nukhayev remains at large.

Critics of Russia's justice system, which is widely seen as lacking independence from the Kremlin, have said prosecutors failed to properly pursue other lines of investigation in the Klebnikov case.

Russia rejected offers of help from U.S. government, which has urged Russian prosecutors to thoroughly investigate all angles and stressed the need to bring those behind the killing to justice — not just those who carried it out.

After a jury acquitted the defendants in May, both prosecutors and lawyers for the Klebnikov family appealed the verdict.

Observers have suggested that Klebnikov may have made powerful enemies in his journalistic work. Forbes' Russian edition had published a list of Russia's 100 wealthiest people that was said to have annoyed many in the nation's secretive business elite, but he worked on various investigative stories.

Klebnikov's killing highlighted the threat faced by journalists in Russia, which ranks as the third-most deadly country for journalists after Iraq and Algeria, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Shrinking media freedom in Russia was highlighted again last month by the killing of reporter Anna Politkovskaya, a Kremlin critic who uncovered abuses against civilians in Chechnya.