Austrian prosecutors said Tuesday that Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov was an obvious suspect in the brazen killing of a Chechen refugee in central Vienna but that they lacked evidence to connect him to the crime.
"Naturally it seems very likely that he ordered the killing. … But the current evidence does not allow us to assume that Kadyrov was personally responsible," prosecutor Leopold Bien told a court in Vienna, Austrian media reported.
Bien spoke at the opening of the trial against three men accused of taking part in the killing of Umar Israilov, who was gunned down in broad daylight in the Austrian capital in January 2009.
The case has made headlines because human rights activists and politicians say there is enough evidence to implicate Kadyrov in the killing, contrary to official Austrian statements.
Kadyrov again denied that he had anything to do with the killing. His ...