23:12, 15 February 2007

Jurors on Khlebnikov's case will be selected on March 14

The Moscow City Court has transferred to March 14 the selection of the board of jurors for considering the murder case of Paul Khlebnikov, editor of the Russian version of the Forbes magazine. According to Anna Usachova, press secretary of the Court, "the session was postponed because of the failure of the defendants to appear, however, the Court has not found it necessary to apply any sanctions to them."

The advocates of Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhaev have informed that their clients failed to appear for valid reasons. "Mr. Vakhaev is in the place of his permanent registration in Moscow, he could not come to court because of illness," one of the participants of the process said. He has also reported that Mr. Dukuzov is now in Chechnya for his family circumstances; however, he will take part in the proceeding, the ITAR-TASS reports.

In May 2006, the jurors completely acquitted Dukuzov and Vakhaev. The State Office of Public Prosecutor appealed against that decision at the Supreme Court of Russia; and the latter sent the case to a new consideration, the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.