Gun victim had 'no intelligence connection'

The employers of a lawyer shot dead as he sat in a cafe at an exclusive Russian hotel on Tuesday have rejected a theory that he may have had intelligence connections.

John Hyden, 41, was in the army legal corps for five years, and took a master's degree in war history before becoming an international business lawyer.

Biographical details issued by the London-based firm yesterday did not mention his time in the army legal corps.

But Struan Robertson, a partner with international law firm Sinclair Roche and Temperley, said: "John was pretty well working flat out with us, on an EU task force. In the last two to three weeks, he had been rushing up and down on a water management project in St Petersburg. John was absolutely a full- time lawyer."

A partner from the firm was standing by to fly to Moscow to help with the return of his body. Mr Hyden, from Edinburgh, is believed to have been an innocent bystander when gunmen burst into the Nevsky Palace Hotel, killing two policeman and wounding a Russian businessman.