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Jury to deliver verdict in Spartak club fan Volkov murder case

Yuri Volkov, 22, was killed in a fight in central Moscow on July 10, 2010

MOSCOW, October 26 (Itar-Tass) — In the Moscow City Court on Wednesday the jury will deliver a verdict in the case of murder of Spartak football club fan Yuri Volkov.

The judge is expected to address the jury with instruction words, after which the jury panel will retire for deliberations on the verdict. Under the law, if the jurors fail to immediately make a unanimous decision, they will have to spend at least 3 hours in the consultation room. If the jury still fails after this time to coincide in opinion, then the defendants’ fate will be decided by a vote, and if the votes split 6 to 6 this will be regarded in favour of their innocence.

The jury are to answer seven questions about the proof of guilt of the defendants in the murder of murder of Spartak football club fan Yuri Volkov. The questions generally concern the proof of the defendants’ guilt and their involvement in the crime with which they are charged. The jury will also decide if the defendants deserve clemency if they deliver a guilty verdict.

The Moscow City Court on October 12 started a closed-door trial over the murder of Spartak fan Yuri Volkov in central Moscow in the summer of 2010. The decision was made by the presiding judge after the injured parties complained they had been threatened.

In the beginning of the hearing, injured party Domnikov, who had participated on the fight on the side of Volkov, who was killed, said defendants Ibragimov and Aidayev had threatened him in the course of the investigation. “And then there were telephone threats,” he said, “so I would like the inquest to be held in camera.” Domnikov also said he was scared by numerous relatives and friends of the defendants who had gathered near the building of the court during preliminary hearings. “This support group - who are they? They are fixing us with their eyes. I fear for my life and the life of my relatives,” Domnikov said. Second injured party Podoprigora backed his stance, saying “the defendants’ support group is provoking” them.

The prosecutor supported the injured parties’ petition and asked the court to have the trial behind closed doors, amidst categorical objections by the defence. “It’s simply absurd; nobody is threatening anyone,” lawyer Abusupyan Gaitayev said. “If the support group is fixing you with their eyes at the exit, what does holding the trial in camera have to do with it? They can fix you with their eyes in the street, too,” Gaitayev said.

However, the judge ordered to clear the room of the third persons. “The court rules to consider the criminal case in camera, in connection with the injured parties' s request to ensure their safety and the safety of their relatives,” the judge 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 persons were hospitalised.

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.

The suspects were checked on polygraph. “I can tell that the results of the polygraph tests are not in the defendants’ favour,” a lawyer told Tass earlier.

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

The Moscow City Court will announce the verdict in the case of Sviridov murder on October 28.