Interfax: Russian Investigative Committee completes inquiry against five Nemtsov murder suspects – Markin

Boris Nemtsov file photo

MOSCOW. Jan 29 (Interfax) – The Russian Investigative Committee has informed the suspects and their lawyers that it has completed its criminal inquiry opened into the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the committee’s spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax on Friday.

“Today, the suspects in this criminal case have been informed that the investigation has been completed, and in the near future the suspects and their lawyers will start to familiarize themselves with the case files in accordance with Article 217 of the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure,” he said.

The criminal case opened against Ruslan Mukhudinov, who ordered and masterminded this crime and who was declared internationally wanted in November 2015, as well as against some other as-yet-unidentified persons “has been separated [from the main inquiry] and will be investigated further,” he said.

Markin recalled that the inquiry resulted in presenting an indictment in the final version containing charges against Zaur Dadayev, Anzor Gubashev, Shadid Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov, and Khamzat Bakhayev. “They are charged with killing by contract in an organized group and also with illegal acquisition, possession, transportation and storage of firearms,” Markin said.

The criminal inquiry against another accomplice – Beslan Shavanov – was closed in November 2015 on non-rehabilitating grounds, due to the death of the suspect as a result of the detonation of explosives that he owned when police attempted to arrest him in Grozny, Markin said.

“Involvement of all the defendants has been attested with the evidence collected in the criminal case, including the results of more than 70 sophisticated forensics (situational, phonographic inquiries, psychological tests, DNA analysis and a complex criminalistics expert examination), as well as witness interrogations, witness confrontations, examination of subjects and documents seized during searches of defendants’ homes, and protocols of the viewing of records from security cameras installed at the murder scene and in the locations where accomplices showed up when arriving at and escaping from the scene”, Markin said.

The criminal case was investigated by the Russian Investigative Committee’s department on investigating particularly important cases, he said.

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