All news

Injured party at murder trial claims threats

Charges were brought against two Chechnya natives

MOSCOW, October 5 (Itar-Tass) — The Moscow City Court began the trial on Wednesday of the case over the murder of Spartak fan Yuri Volkov in central Moscow in the summer of 2010. Maxim Domnitsky, an injured party, stated that defendant Akhmedpasha Aidayev had threatened him.

Domnitsky made the statement as the court was reviewing the prosecutor's petition to extend custody for the defendants.

"I'm against their being released from custody, as Aidayev has been threatening me," he told the court.

The preliminary hearings on Wednesday were held behind closed doors.

A jury will review the case. One of the defendants asked for jury trial, and under the law, his request cannot be denied.

Earlier, all the suspects were checked on polygraph. "I can tell that the results of the polygraph tests are not in the defendants' favour," one of the lawyers said.

Yuri Volkov, 22, was killed in a fight in central Moscow on July 10, 2010. The investigators said two groups of youngsters, numbering three and eight people, clashed in the Chistye Prudy area. The fight was motivated by "personal dislike," the police said.

Volkov was fatally stabbed and died in an ambulance. Another two people were hospitalized.

Charges were brought against two Chechnya natives: Akhmedpasha Aidayev (who is accused of murder) and Bekkhan Ibragimov (accused of hooliganism and malicious infliction of harm to health). Both deny their guilt saying Spartak fans had dragged them into the fight and that they had had no knives.

At present, the Moscow City Court reviews a similar case over the murder of Spartak fan Yegor Sviridov on December 6, 2010. The crime caused a public outcry and resulted in mass disturbances in Moscow's Manezhnaya Square and other areas of the city.