Vu An Tuan was stabbed to death in the northwest Russian city in October 2004 by a group of drunken teenagers, out of alleged race-hate motives. Last week a St. Petersburg court acquitted all 17 suspects of the murder, but sentenced three of them to prison terms over separate attacks on foreign nationals.
The city prosecutors said, "An appeal has been submitted in connection with procedural violations, committed during the proceedings by the defense, and which influenced the verdict."
Earlier in October, the jury had found nine of the suspects guilty of attacking foreign nationals, but not of killing Vu An Tuan. The Vietnamese Foreign Ministry condemned the acquittals.
Le Dung, a spokesman for the ministry, said: "We deeply regret that the criminals who killed Vu An Tuan have not been named, and have not yet received their due punishment."
Russia has experienced a wave of attacks on non-white foreigners this year, particularly in St. Petersburg, where an Indian student was stabbed to death and a Sudanese national attacked in September.
