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Russian prosecutors appeal journalist's acquittal of slander

© RIA Novosti . Grigory Sysoev / Go to the mediabankMikhail Beketov
Mikhail Beketov - Sputnik International
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Russian prosecutors have appealed a court ruling acquitting a crippled Russian journalist of defamation charges, the journalist's lawyer said on Tuesday.

Russian prosecutors have appealed a court ruling acquitting a crippled Russian journalist of defamation charges, the journalist's lawyer said on Tuesday.

Mikhail Beketov, the former editor of the Khimkinskaya Pravda newspaper, who was crippled in a brutal beating two years ago, was found guilty this November of slandering Vladimir Strelchenko, the mayor of Khimki, a town near Moscow.

Beketov was cleared of charges earlier this month due to the lack of evidence.

However, his lawyer Andrei Stolbunov said on Tuesday Russian prosecutors appealed the acquittal. "Prosecutors filed an appeal yesterday on Beketov's verdict," he said.

The appeal is to be considered in a Moscow district court.

Beketov, 52, was attacked in November 2008 after he criticized government plans to build a highway through the centuries-old Khimki oak forest. His leg was broken and later amputated, three fingers were broken and he was severely brain damaged.

Criminal proceedings against Beketov started in September 2007 when the Khimki mayor demanded the journalist acknowledge that his interview claiming that Strelchenko was involved in the bombing of his car was slander.

Earlier this month, Beketov won an award from the Austrian branch of the Reporters Without Borders organization for his work and namely courage of investigation.

MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti)

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