Vietnam has urged Russia to continue hunting for those involved in the brutal murder of a Vietnamese student in St. Petersburg in 2004 after the Supreme Court recently acquitted all 17 charged in the case.

“The [murder] case cannot be discontinued up at this point,” Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dzung told a press briefing in Hanoi Friday.

“The St Petersburg authorities must launch a fresh investigation to find out and punish the culprits,” he added.

Vu Anh Tuan, then 20, was a student of the St. Petersburg Polytechnic College when he was killed, and an autopsy revealed 37 stab wounds in his body.

The Russian Supreme Court Thursday confirmed the not-guilty verdict returned by a lower court against the men accused in Tuan’s killing, suspected to be racially-motivated.

Dzung said the brutal killing of Tuan had aroused deep public concern in both Vietnam and Russia.

“We ask the [Russian] Federal Government to take all necessary measures to secure foreigners, including Vietnamese nationals, living in Russia.”

The lawyer for Tuan’s family, Ivan Kurylyov, said he would appeal again.

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