By Guy Faulconbridge MOSCOW, Jan 11 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday the Russian jury system had been discredited by a series of cases where people accused of high-profile killings had been freed. At a meeting with human rights activists in the Kremlin, Putin pointed to a Moscow jury's acquittal in May of two men accused of murdering U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov. "This of course discredits the very institution (of jury trial) but this does not mean we must stop its work -- we must develop it, strengthen it," Putin said. For years, verdicts in all Russian trials were handed down by a panel of judges. The gradual introduction of jury trials over the last few years is regarded by Western governments as vital to make Russia's legal system fairer. But rights activists who believe jury trial will help reduce miscarriages of justice say it is now under threat from the Kremlin because juries have handed down politically-embarrassing verdicts. Putin denied any Kremlin campaign against jury trial. "We must think about how to safeguard the independence and security of jurors and we must simply better organise the work or juries ... (It is) not about how to displace this institution, but about how to strengthen it," he said. Mara Polyakova, director of campaign group the Independent Expert Legal Council, said when judges sat without juries they often cut deals with prosecutors to ensure a conviction. Juries had proved more awkward for prosecutors by identifying holes in their cases, she said. "The authorities are used to controlling courts," Polyakova told Reuters before Thursday's meeting. "(But) a jury trial will just not let through bad quality work. It will bring down the case." A Moscow jury in May acquitted two Chechens accused of killing Klebnikov, the editor of Forbes in Russia, who was shot outside his office in central Moscow in July 2004. In another high-profile case, Russian army captain Eduard Ulman was acquitted of opening fire in 2002 on a civilian vehicle in Chechnya before executing the survivors, one of whom was a pregnant woman. "If (in the Klebnikov case) one could say that the investigators worked badly and did not collect sufficient material, then what can we say about the infamous murder in Chechnya?" Putin asked. "There, all the evidence was on the table."
