Interfax: All defendants in Nemtsov murder refusing to cooperate with police – source

(Interfax – March 17, 2015)

Defendants in the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov have refused to cooperate with the police, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax.

“The defendants have declined to help the detectives,” he said.

He also confirmed that some of the defendants had refused to answer police questions on the basis of article 51 of the Russian constitution.

“Zaur Dadayev was the only cooperative one at the start but he retracted the testimony and changed his tactics later,” the source said.

Nemtsov was killed near the Kremlin in downtown Moscow late at night on February 27.

Interfax reported earlier that five defendants – Zaur Dadayev, Anzor Gubashev, Khamzat Bakhayev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Shadid Gubashev – had been arrested.

A source in the law enforcement authorities told Interfax that Zaur Dadayev, a former deputy commander of the Chechen battalion North, might have perpetrated the murder.

A source close to the investigative group told Interfax on Monday that the accusations brought against the detainees had been changed from a crime motivated by greed or mercenary reasons to a political or religious hate crime.