[JURIST] The Russian Supreme Court [official website] on Thursday reversed the acquittal [JURIST report] of two Chechens accused of murdering Forbes magazine editor Paul Klebnikov [Economist obituary] in 2004 and ordered a new trial in the case. Kazbek Dukuzov and Musa Vakhayev, who did not appear in court Thursday, were acquitted by eight jurors in the Moscow City Court in May after pleading not guilty [JURIST report] at the trial's commencement in January. Prosecutors had alleged that Dukozuv and Vakhayev were working under the order [JURIST report] of Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev [AFP profile], a Chechen separatist figure who was the subject of scrutiny in one of Klebnikov's books.

Klebnikov, the editor of Forbes magazine's Russian edition, was in the process of investigating corruption in Russian business before his death in 2004 in Moscow. Prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin said in May that he would appeal [JURIST report] to the Russian Supreme Court as the lower court's trial was plagued by procedural violations. Reuters has more. ITAR-TASS has local coverage.