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suspects arrested over Nemtsov murder, 1 'confessed' - court
Moscow's Basmanny district court has arrested five people in connection with the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition figure, who was gunned down last week.
RT,
8
March, 2015
Two
judges are reviewing the charges against the five people brought
before the court by the prosecutors on Sunday.
Two
of them are Zaur Dadaev and Anzor Gubashev, who were identified as
key suspects in the killing of Nemtsov after their detention on
Saturday.
The
prosecutors asked the court to arrest the duo by April 28, the
current deadline for the investigation, saying that otherwise they
may flee or interfere with the investigation.
According
to the judge, who ordered Dadaev’s arrest as requested by the
prosecution, he confessed his involvement to the police. The accused
didn’t comment on this during the court session.
Gubashev
pleaded not guilty to the crimes he is charged with.
The
other individuals, who may have had a hand in the crime, are
Gubashev’s brother Shagit and two identified as Ramzat Bakhaev and
Tamerlan Eskerkhanov. The request for their arrest has been reviewed
separately by another judge.
“The
suspects denied their ties to the crime, but we have evidence of
their guilt. It includes forensic evidence and eyewitness
accounts,”an investigator told the court.
The
trio denied their involvement, with Eskerkhanov claiming to have an
alibi. But the judge ordered their arrests as well.
Eskerkhanov
and Bakhaev have been remanded until May 8 and Shagit Gubashev -
until May 7.
The
sixth suspect, Beslan Shavanov, 30, reportedly committed suicide on
March 7, when police came to his apartment in Chechnya’s capital
Grozny. The man, according to LifeNews channel, had barricaded
himself in the apartment.
“In
response to the police’s demand he surrender, he [the suspect]
threw a hand grenade [at police forces],” a
law enforcement source told the news channel. Shavanov then detonated
another grenade, killing himself.
The
President of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, commented on the
arrest of the five suspects on his Instagram account on May 8. He
specifically spoke about Dadaev, saying he knew him “as
a patriot of Russia” who
used to serve as deputy regiment commander in one of the Chechen
Republic’s interior ministry units.
Kadyrov
has ordered a “thorough
investigation” of
Dadaev’s retirement from the unit, saying that he “does
not understand true reasons and motives” behind
his decision.
However,
the Chechen leader noted that the suspect, as a deep believer, had
been “shocked” by
the Charlie Hebdo scandal and all the “comments
in support of printing the cartoons.”
Kadyrov
has also confirmed Shavanov “died
during attempts to detain him”.
Nemtsov
was killed by a gunman a few meters from the Moscow Kremlin,
triggering a flurry of condemnations and calls for a swift
investigation. The assassination happened two days ahead of an
opposition rally, which Nemtsov helped to organize.
While
political motive is considered the most likely in the killing, the
investigators said they were considering other scenarios, including a
business or personal conflict. Likely political motives behind the
killing according to the investigators include a provocation aimed at
destabilizing the situation in Russia, possibly by Ukrainian
radicals, and revenge by Islamists for Nemtsov’s support of the
French magazine Charlie Hebdo following an extremist attack.
Important developments in the Nemtsov murder case (UPDATED)’
8
March,2015
It
took the combined efforts of the FSB/SKR/MVD one week to make the
first arrests in the case of the murder of Nemtsov: a group of 7 men,
all from the North Caucasus were arrested. A sixth man killed
himself with a hand grenade in Grozny when he was about to be
arrested.
Potok
Camera
The
Russians used the combination of the “Potok”
HD camera monitoring network and
intercepts of all the cellular phone network calls made from the city
center that evening to zero in the car used by the killer to escape
which soon lead to the entire group.
The
authorities seem pretty confident that they got the right men.
They are:
- Zaur Dadaev (Заур Дадаев) – the supposed killer who, according to unconfirmed reports, was the deputy commander of the Chechen special operations battalion “Vostok”.
- Shagit Gubashev (Шагит Губашев)
- Anzor Gubashev (Анзор Губашев)
- Khamzat Bakhaev (Хамзат Бахаев)
- Tamerlan Eskerkhanov (Тамерлан Эскерханов)
- Shagid Gubashev (Шагид Губашев)
- Ramzan Bakhaev (Рамзан Бахаев)
The
last two have not, as of this moment, been charged with anything.
This
is a big group of people and it appears that the security services
have caught if not the full network or gang, then at least most of
it.
Zaur
Dadaev
According
to breaking news from Moscow, the main suspect, Zaur Dadaev, has now
confessed that he is the person who killed Nemtsov.
The
rapid arrest of all these men is, of course, good news for the
security services, but considering that Nemtsov was murdered in one
of the most monitored and protected locations on Russia, it is hardly
surprising. I had expected an arrest withing 48 hours, and I
bet you the Russians knew who done it very soon, but they wanted to
arrest the full network.
Whether
these arrests will provide the real answers is, alas, very
uncertain. We can, for example, remember the case of the murder
of Anna
Politkovskaya who
was also initially blamed on Putin and Ramzan Kadyrov and which
eventually lead to two trials (along with several more murders).
Eventually, a group of Chechens was found guilty and sentenced to
long jail terms, but the identity of the people who ordered that hit
was never discovered.
I
am very concerned that in this case again we will go along the same
scenario. Chechens, especially those who served in the Chechen
security forces, make ideal culprits as they can be presented either
as criminal thugs, or religious fanatics, or both. Add to that
the fact that Chechen mobsters have very close ties to the Ukrainian
oligarchs and that Chechens are fighting on both sides of the
conflict in the Donbass and you will immediately get the picture: it
will be exceedingly hard to prove who ordered the murder and why.
So
far my prediction that patsies will be found is proven correct and
ideal culprits have been found. I just hope that this will be
just the beginning of a real investigation and not the end of it.
The
Saker
UPDATE:
Russian source now have indicated that the security services
are looking another 4 men suspected of having provided the weapon
used in the crime.
Nemtsov Murder: Case Closed?
By
J.Hawk
8
March, 2015
Russian
media is widely reporting that Nemtsov's murder was master-minded and
carried out by Zaur Dadayev (pictured above) who had already made a
confession. The motive for the killing was reported as Nemtsov's
stance on the Charlie Hebdo incident, and his criticism of Islam,
Muslims, and the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov.
Kadyrov,
for his part, sought take some of the heat off Dadayev, who after all
was a decorated combat veteran who had risked his life in combat
against Islamist militants in the Caucasus.
Is
that the end of the story? We may never really know. On the face of
it, the explanation offered is not wholly implausible. It may well be
that Dadayev felt Kadyrov, who was quite outspoken in his criticism
of Nemtsov and other Russian neo-liberals, might approve of this act
even though he had not ordered it.
It
is more likely that Dadayev is genuinely responsible for the crime,
but that he is not revealing his true motives or instigators of the
murder. It's unlikely Kadyrov would have ordered it--he would not do
anything that the Russian government would automatically disapprove
of. It's possible Dadayev has links to Chechen militants fighting on
the side of the Kiev regime, but does not want to reveal them due to
the strength of clan loyalties (we don't know whether Dadayev is in
any way related to these militants, but it cannot be ruled out).
Finally, Dadayev may have been acting on behalf of a Chechen or
Ingush faction, clan, or family that entered into conflict with
Nemtsov on personal or business grounds. Again, the sense of loyalty
would prevent Dadayev from implicating the party behind the murder,
even if it meant taking the full blame for it.
It
is also possible that the story has been released by the Russian
investigators in order to induce a false sense of security among the
party responsible for recruiting Dadayev to commit the murder. For
all we know, Dadayev has spilled the beans, but the Russian
government is protecting him and his relatives from retribution by
insisting he has taken the full blame for the murder.
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