Boris Nemtsov murder suspect: police forced me to confess to killing

By The Guardian

A former law enforcement officer charged with involvement in the murder of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov says he was forced to confess to the killing.

Zaur Dadayev, who was the deputy commander of the north interior ministry battalion in Russia’s restive Chechnya republic, was detained in neighbouring Ingushetia and charged with the murder in Moscow this weekend.

During a court hearing to place him under arrest, a Moscow judge said he had admitted the crime. Nemtsov was killed by four shots to the back on 27 February as he walked across a bridge next to the Kremlin.

The Rosbalt news agency later reported that Dadayev had told investigators he killed Nemtsov because of the politician’s allegedly negative statements about Islam, quoting unnamed law enforcement sources.

Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya’s strongman leader, said in an Instagram post on Sunday that Dadayev had been “shocked” by the support for the Charlie Hebdo journalists killed in Paris over caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

But members of a prisoners’ rights monitoring group that visited Dadayev and two other suspects in Moscow’s Lefortovo detention centre on Tuesday allegedly found evidence that the confession had been forced.

Dadayev said he had been held in shackles for two days with a bag over his head,reported Yeva Merkachyova, a member of the monitoring group and a journalist at the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets.

He said: “They were yelling the whole time, ‘you killed Nemtsov?’ I was answering no. When I was detained, I was with a friend, my former subordinate Ruslan Yusupov, and they said that if I agreed they would let him go. I agreed. I thought that I would save him, and they would take me to Moscow alive. Otherwise what happened to Shavanov would have happened to me.”

Beslan Shavanov, another member of the north battalion suspected of involvement in Nemtsov’s murder, was killed when police attempted to detain him in the Chechen capital, Grozny, this weekend. Law enforcement sources said Shavanov threw a grenade at officers before blowing himself up with a second grenade.

Four other men from the Caucasus were arrested along with Dadayev; one of them, Anzor Gubashev, was charged with involvement in the murder. The monitoring group saw cuts and bruises on Gubashev’s arms and legs, and was told by his brother Shagid Gubashev, also a suspect, that he was beaten after being detained.

Russia’s investigative committee said on Wednesday that it would summon Merkachyova and another member of the monitoring group for questioning, claiming that they had violated the law by “asking about the materials of a criminal case” during a visit meant to assess the conditions of confinement.

Dadayev’s reported confession has raised fears that he will serve as a patsy for more influential people that could have ordered the hit on Nemtsov. In several previous political killings – such as the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006 – perpetrators have been sentenced without revealing who commissioned them.

In his post on Sunday, Kadyrov said Dadayev had left the north battalion, which is commanded by the brother of Kadyrov ally and MP Adam Delimkhanov. However, according to an interior ministry official quoted in the news agency Tass, Dadayev had been on holiday and was dismissed the day after Nemtsov’s killing.

Caucasus experts, such as Oleg Orlov of the human rights group Memorial, have said it is unlikely Dadayev could have carried out such a complicated crime without the knowledge of his superiors.

The Nobel peace prize-nominated independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta reported on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin had been informed that Nemtsov had been on a kill list and the likely organiser of the hit was a former north battalion officer named “Ruslan” who is related to a high-ranking Chechen security official.

Speaking to the radio station Ekho Moskvy on Wednesday, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not comment on whether the president was given such information, but added that the report of a kill list with the name of Nemtsov and other opposition leaders was absurd.

Nemtsov murder: Two held over killing of opposition politician

By BBC

Two men have been detained over the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced.

Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, both from the Caucasus region, were detained on Saturday, FSB director Alexander Bortnikov said.

Russian investigators said there were suspected of organising and carrying out the murder. The killing on a bridge within sight of the Kremlin shocked Russia. The former deputy prime minister and veteran liberal politician, 55, was shot in the back four times on the night of 27 February as he was walking on the street with his girlfriend. He was buried in Moscow on Tuesday.

That the announcement was made on state television by the head of the FSB himself is a clear sign the Kremlin wants to be seen taking this case extremely seriously, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Moscow.

'Car found'

Mr Bortnikov gave no details of how and where the suspects were detained, in the brief statement carried by Russia's state-owned Channel One, but he did say the investigation was continuing. Neither of the men has yet been formally charged.

A source said to be familiar with the investigation told Russia's Interfax news agency the car allegedly used by the suspects was found rapidly and evidence gathered in the vehicle was used along with phone records to identify them, the source said.

Footage from security cameras had provided "sufficiently clear" images of the suspects, he added.

President Putin has publicly condemned the murder and called for an end to "shameful" political killings in Russia.

But leading opposition figure Alexei Navalny accused the Kremlin of ordering the assassination in order to cow the opposition amid Russia's mounting economic problems.

Russian investigators have publicly offered multiple motives ranging from Nemtsov's business dealings to his condemnation of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.

Nemtsov was killed just days before a march he was organising against the war in Ukraine. He had also been drafting a report expected to expose covert Russian military involvement in the conflict.

Some 50,000 people attended a rally near the Kremlin in protest at his death on 1 March and thousands turned out to pay their respects on the day of his funeral.

One Russian MP, Nikolai Kovalyov, told Ria-Novosti news agency that the key thing was to "find out who ordered this assassination".

Opposition activist Ilya Yashin said it was not enough to establish that the suspects had killed Nemtsov. Writing on Facebook (in Russian), he said investigators needed to identify and arrest those who had ordered the murder.

"If those who ordered the murder are able to escape responsibility, the practice of political murders will definitely go on," he said.

Miles de personas recorren las calles de Moscú en memoria de Nemtsov

Vía El País

Miles de personas han marchado este domingo en homenaje al líder opositor Borís Nemtsov, asesinado antenoche a tiros a poca distancia del Kremlin. El crimen del carismático ex viceprimer ministro ha conmocionado a la sociedad rusa. Nemtsov se ha sumado a la lista de otros políticos y parlamentarios abatidos por sicarios, como los diputados Galina Staravóitova o Serguéi Yushenkov. Este tipo de asesinatos rara vez son dilucidados del todo. Esta vez, el Comité de Investigaciones ha ofrecido una recompensa en metálico a quien dé información que ayude a resolver el caso. Durante la marcha, la policía detuvo al diputado de la Rada Suprema ucrania Alexéi Goncharenko. Se desconocen los motivos del arresto. 

La marcha comenzó poco después de la una de la tarde, hora española, desde la plaza Eslava, en el centro de Moscú, hacia la Moskvorétskaya náberezhnaya, una de las calles que corren a lo largo del río, y terminó a la entrada del Gran Puente del Moscova, donde se produjo el asesinato. Allí, los manifestantes procedieron a depositar flores, como individualmente la gente ha venido haciendo desde la noche del viernes al sábado.

La mayoría de los que marcharon este domingo son personas críticas con el régimen. La oposición tenía planificada una manifestación anticrisis que debía celebrarse en Márino, un suburbio capitalino, pero este acto fue cancelado debido a la trágica muerte de Nemtsov y, en su lugar, pidieron permiso para realizar una marcha fúnebre. Y a este homenaje en memoria del carismático político se unió mucha gente que, en principio, no pensaba ir a Márino al mitin opositor.

"Los héroes no mueren", "Pereció por el futuro de Rusia", "Sus balas están en todos nosotros", "Luchaba por la libertad en Rusia" son algunas consignas que se podían leer en las pancartas con la foto de Borís Nemtsov que llevaban los manifestantes durante la marcha. La policía moscovita calcula que participaron unas 21.000 personas en el homenaje a Nemtsov, mientras que los organizadores cifran la asistencia a la marcha en más de 51.000. También hubo actos de recuerdo en otras ciudades, entre los que destacó el celebrado en San Petersburgo, con unas 6.000 personas. 

De momento, pocos progresos ha hecho la policía en sus investigaciones. Hasta ahora no se ha detenido a ningún sospechoso ni se ha encontrado el auto en el que huyeron los asesinos. La policía ha registrado el piso de Nemtsov en busca de pistas y recogido todas las grabaciones de las cámaras de vigilancia cercanas al lugar del crimen. Una de ellas captó el momento en que Nemtsov fue tiroteado por la espalda por un hombre que luego se subió a un coche blanco.

Cuatro disparos dieron en el cuerpo del político, que murió casi instantáneamente pues una de las balas le dio en el corazón y otra, que penetró por el cuello, llegó hasta el cerebro. Fuentes policiales han dicho que los seis casquillos encontrados en el puente son diferentes, lo que les hace pensar que no se trata de una sicario profesional.

Los investigadores estudian todas las versiones posibles, que van desde una provocación para desestabilizar el régimen hasta un lío de faldas, pasando por negocios, animadversión personal, su trabajo en la lucha contra la corrupción en la Asamblea Provincial de Yaroslav, de la que era diputado, su posición contraria a la guerra en Ucrania e incluso el fanatismo islamista. Pero ante la falta de pistas contundentes, el Comité de Investigación ha decidido recompensar con tres millones de rublos (cerca de 43.678 euros) a quien proporciones información para resolver el caso.

Anna Durítskaya, la acompañante de Nemtsov en el momento del crimen, fue visitada hoy por el cónsul de Ucrania (la joven modelo es ciudadana de ese país) después de que un diputado denunciara en Kiev que es mantenida encerrada contra su voluntad en un apartamento moscovita. Durístskaya es la principal testigo –hay también un muchacho que vio cómo disparaban contra el político- y la policía anunció que, en el marco de las investigaciones en curso, todavía necesita que ella permanezca en Moscú.