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Suspects in Nemtsov murder case plead not guilty in Moscow court

Boris Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister under then-President Boris Yeltsin, was gunned down in downtown Moscow on February 27, 2015
Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Shadid Gubashev, suspected of being involved in the murder of Boris Nemtsov Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Shadid Gubashev, suspected of being involved in the murder of Boris Nemtsov
© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 3. /TASS/. All suspects in the murder case of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov pleaded not guilty during the hearing on the merits at the Moscow District Military Court on Monday, a TASS correspondent has reported.

The prosecutor read out the indictment and later the suspects expressed their stance on it.

Zaur Dadayev, the suspected perpetrator of the killing, insisted that he is not guilty.

"My client did not admit and is not admitting his guilt, he did not commit the crime," his lawyer said, adding that he would give more details on the position later.

Prosecutor Mariya Semenenko said Nemtsov was killed by four shots. "Dadayev fired three shots, he saw that he (Nemtsov) started going up and fired another three shots. Nemtsov died of four shots. There were three penetrating wounds and two blunt wounds," she said.

The prosecutor earlier said that the gun has not been found.

The other suspect, Shadid Gubahev, said he and his brother had been abducted the day before their official detention. "The prosecutor lies claiming that we followed Nemtsov via the Internet, we had neither possibility nor skill for that. I did not follow Nemtsov in my car. I was in the (Moscow) region and worked in my car."

Another suspect, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, said he did not understand the indictment. "All of you are against me - both the prosecutor and the court," he said, stressing "I didn’t do that."

Nemtsov, former deputy prime minister under then-President Boris Yeltsin, co-chairman of the Parnas party and lawmaker of the Yaroslavl regional legislature, was gunned down in downtown Moscow on February 27, 2015. Five persons were arrested on March 8 last year on suspicion of murdering the politician: Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubahev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev.