Chechen trace obvious in Paul Klebnikov's murder

Russian law-enforcement agencies have arrested another suspect of the Chechen origin

A Chechen national suspected of killing Forbes Russia editor, Paul Khlebnikov, has been recently arrested in Moscow. The 40-years-old citizen of Chechnya, Musa Vakhayev, was detained according to the petition from the Russian Prosecutor General, Interfax reported.

A spokesman for the Moscow court, which issued the arrest warrant, stated that Vakhayev had been arrested for the period of ten days until the court brought charges against him.

According to the information received from law-enforcement agencies, Vakhayev was nabbed on Thursday as a result of the operation conducted within the framework of the investigation of Paul Klebnikov's murder.

”For the time being, the version of the so-called Chechen trace is considered the central one at this stage of the investigation,” a source told Interfax. According to a different version, which has been recently discussed in the Russian media, Paul Klebnikov's murder was linked with his book about Chechnya, one of the characters of which was a Chechen separatist leader.

Official spokesmen for the Russian Office of the Prosecutor General have not released any comments in connection with the arrest of the above-mentioned Chechen citizen, having referred to the interests of the investigation.

Two other Chechen suspects were arrested in Moscow on September 30th. Police officers withdrew a gun from them, from which Paul Klebnikov had been shot, according to the results of the preliminary ballistic expertise. Their lawyers repeatedly emphasized the fact that the charges brought against the two Chechens were ungrounded.

A well-known American journalist of the Russian origin, Paul Klebnikov, was shot dead in Moscow on July 9th, as he was leaving the office of Forbes Russia. The department for cases of special importance of the Russian Office of the Prosecutor General conducts the investigation of the case.