MOSCOW, August 22 (Itar-Tass) — The main office of the Investigative Committee /SK/ has launched a pre-investigation check into the beating at the Moscow City Clout of Yusup Khadzhi Temerkhanov, a defendant in the case over the murder of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass.
Earlier, the press service of the Interior Ministry's department for Moscow stated that the police convoying the defendant used force on his after he offered resisted as the officers tried to search him.
"The check was launched on the statement by lawyer Murad Musayev, who had reported that his client had been severely beaten in the room for the convoyed at the building of the Moscow City Court which was to decide on extending custody for the accused," Markin said.
"All the police personnel who were in that room, the lawyer and the eyewitnesses will be questioned. The SK will also retrieve CCTV records. A procedural decision is pending the results of the check," the SK spokesman added.
The officers who had allegedly beaten up the Temerkhanov were not special task force police /OMON/ but a convoying unit staff. The victim was identified as Yusup Khadzhi Temerkhanov, but the lawyer used his other name - Magomed Suleimanov - to report the incident, a police official said.
"We were to have attended a hearing at 10:30, Moscow time, over custody extension for my client. When Suleimanov was brought to the hall two hours later, he looked severely beaten, and when the judge asked him what had happened, he could barely answer that OMON special task force police had beaten him up," Musayev stated.
"Suleimanov has fractured nose and a cut on his forehead, his eye is bruised and he has abrasions on his face. An ambulance has been called and medics were examining him for more than an hour," he said.
The investigator ascertained that Magomed Suleimanov, 41, entered in collusion with an unidentified person, aimed at murdering Budanov. They worked out a criminal plan and were tailing Budanov. Suleimanov purchased a Mitsubishi Lancer. Later, he killed Budanov.
Suleimanov was accused of first degree murder and illegal turnover of weapons /Article 205, Part 2 and Article 222, Part 2 of Russia's penal code/.
Yuri Budanov, 47, was shot and killed in central Moscow at noon on June 10, 2011, as he was leaving a notary's office in Komsomolsky Prospekt (Avenue). An unidentified attacker fired four shots at his head. The white Mitsubishi Lancer in which he fled was later found in a nearby district in Dovatora Street. Police found a pistol with a silencer in the car.
There were two criminals. One was waiting in the car, and his accomplice shot at Budanov several times. The killer was clad in military uniform.
One of the initial leads was that Budanov had been killed because of revenge. The investigator later said Budanov's murder was motivated by Suleimanov's hatred to the social group of servicemen after the murder of his father in 2000. The defendant refused to testify.
In 2003, Budanov was sentenced to ten years in jail on charges of kidnapping and murdering Chechen woman Elza Kungayeva in the village of Tangi-Chu in March 2000. The North Caucasus district military court stripped him of his rank of Colonel and state decorations. A court denied his parole plea four times. On December 24, 2008, the Dimitrovgrad district court granted him parole. On January 15, 2009, the department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Ulyanovsk region confirmed that Budanov had left the penal colony. Chechnya said it would be seeking to arraign him for other crimes committed during his participation in the anti-terrorist operation.