Russia court clears 17 of killing Vietnamese man

MOSCOW, March 1 (Reuters) Russia's Supreme Court today upheld a decision by a St Petersburg court to acquit 17 young men charged with stabbing to death a Vietnamese student in a racially motivated attack in 2004.

The court turned down the prosecution appeal against the acquittal last October after a closed-door trial in St Petersburg, the court's spokesman said.

Witnesses of the murder in October 2004 of 20-year-old Vu Anh Tuan have said a group of men who attacked him were clad in semi-military uniforms, leather jackets and heavy boots, typical attire for skinheads.

But the jury in St Petersburg decided prosecutors had failed to give solid evidence proving the 17 defendants were guilty.

In recent years, a series of racially motivated attacks against dark-skinned foreigners and citizens of ex-Soviet states have taken place across Russia, many of them in St Petersburg.

President Vladimir Putin has described the trend as a threat to national security and urged courts and law enforcement agencies to step up their struggle against racism.

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