Russian Investigative Committee: Nemtsov Murder Solved

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – January 21, 2016)

Head of Russia’s Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin has announced that last year’s murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov has been solved, the Interfax news agency reported.

The investigation Into Nemtsov’s death was one of the murder cases solved in 2015 Bastrykin said in an interview with state-run newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta: Weekly to be published Thursday, Interfax reported Wednesday.

Boris Nemtsov was fatally shot in the back in a drive-by shooting while walking across Moscow’s Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge on Feb. 27, 2015.

Four suspects – Zaur Dadayev, Shagid Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerhanov and Khamzat Bakhaev -were charged in December over Nemtsov’s killing. Beslan Shavanov, the fifth suspect, blew himself up during the arrest.

According to the investigation, the murder was ordered and masterminded by an officer of Chechnya’s Sever battalion Ruslan Mukhutdinov.

Vadim Prokhorov, the Nemtsov family’s lawyer has repeatedly said that he does not consider the case solved. According to Prokhorov, Mukhutdinov was unable to have ordered and masterminded the murder. The crime was ordered by high-profile people, Prokhorov said last month, Interfax reported.

On Jan. 25, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will hold hearings on whether PACE should take control of the investigation into Boris Nemtsov’s murder, the Kommersant newspaper reported Thursday, citing Lithuanian MP Emanuelis Zingeris.

“It is important for us to hear the voice of the injured side – the family of Boris Nemtsov, his associates – and decide which of the instruments of international law we will use if it becomes clear that there are not enough tools inside Russia to solve [the crime],” Zingeris was quoted by the newspaper as saying.