[FPSPACE] Case Into Death Of Kommersant Aerospace Journalist Closed -- Officially a "Suicide"

[Jim Oberg]

Case Into Death Of Kommersant Journalist Closed

Moscow Interfax in English 0724 GMT 12 Sep 07

   MOSCOW. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The criminal case into the suicide of Kommersant daily correspondent Ivan Safronovich has been closed "due to any absence of crime in the case."

   The decision was made by the Moscow Central District Prosecutor's Office, the newspaper said.

   "Investigators have concluded that the journalist's death occurred as a result of suicide," Kommersant said on Wednesday.

   "The investigation was a mere formality, and prosecutors never checked whether the journalist's death was in any way related to his professional activity," the newspaper said.

   Defense reporter for the Kommersant daily Ivan Safronov was found dead outside his house in Nizhegorodskaya street in Moscow on March 2, 2007. He fell out of a window between the fourth and the fifth floors. Prosecutors launched a criminal case under Article 110 of the Russian Penal Code (suicide).

   Prosecution officials earlier told Interfax that investigators did not treat the journalist's death as a crime.