Two Chechen men charged in the July 2004 murder of Forbes Russia editor Paul Klebnikov in Moscow will be tried in secret at the direction of the Russian prosecutor-general. The prosecutor's office said Monday that it was ready to proceed against the two defendants.
Moscow City Court spokesperson Anna Usachyova said on Tuesday that a trial date would be set in two weeks. "The criminal trial will be held at the Moscow City Court in a closed regime, since there is information that is classified as 'secret,' " Usachyova said, according to the state news agency RIA-Novosti.
Klebnikov, 41, a US journalist of Russian descent, was gunned down outside his Moscow office on July 9, 2004. From the beginning of the investigation, Russian authorities described Klebnikov's case as a contract murder and said they believed he was killed because of his work.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged prosecutors to reconsider the decision and hold the proceedings in public. "We call on Russian authorities to hold an open trial so that the media can report on the case and the public can evaluate the government's evidence," CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said.
"Many courts have successfully protected state secrets by closing portions of testimony and sealing evidence. Given Russia's record of impunity in the murders of journalists, public and transparent proceedings would establish far greater credibility," she said.
The prosecutor is charging the two suspects � Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev � with committing a series of other crimes, including contract killings, extortion, robbery and participating in a criminal group, the state news agency ITAR-TASS reported. Russian authorities say they are seeking two other members of the criminal gang, Magomed Dukuzov and Magomed Edilsultanov, in connection with this murdr and other crimes, ITAR-TASS reported.
In June, the prosecutor accused Chechen separatist leader Khozh Akhmed Nukhayev of ordering the murder of Klebnikov, allegedly in retaliation for the journalist's 2003 Russian-language book, Conversation with a Barbarian: Interviews with a Chechen Field Commander on Banditry and Islam. Authorities say they are also seeking Nukhayev.
The investigation found that the ring members had been also involved in the murder of the former Chechen deputy prime minister, Yan Sergunin, who was killed in Moscow on June 25, 2004, the attempted murder of the businessman Alexei Pichugin, robbery and extortion. Three suspects, Kazbek Dukuzov, Musa Vakhayev and Fail Sadretdinov who allegedly was not a ring member but ordered Pichugin's murder, are currently in custody. Others have been put in the wanted list.
Earlier, Sadretdinov revealed excerpts from an FBI report including information gathered from Klebnikov's family. They said he had started a "huge and frightful investigation" shortly before his death. Sadretdinov said the "Chechen" theory of Klebnikov's murder was "the most unlikely but convenient."
Klebnikov had written a number of books and articles that angered his subjects. In 2001 his best-selling book "Godfather of the Kremlin" was highly critical of exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky. Klebnikov is one of 12 journalists murdered in contract-style killings since Russian President Vladimir Putin took office in 2000. None of the murders has been solved, according to CPJ.
