MOSCOW, October 10. /TASS/. Russia’s Supreme Court upheld the verdict on the case of the murder of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, a TASS correspondent reported.
"The verdict of the court of primary jurisdiction remains in effect, the appeals of those convicted and the affected party are not to be sustained," the judge said. The court however released each of the convicts from a fine of 100,000 rubles.
After the court pronounced its ruling, the convicts’ lawyers said they would challenge it with the European Court of Human Rights and with a court of cassation. "We plan to challenge the verdict with the Strasbourg court," said Roza Magomedova.
The convicts’ defense lawyers demanded the jury verdict be revoked. Attorney of the Nemtsovs family asked to exonerate of the convicts, Khamzat Bakhayev, and to re-determine the case from murder to attempted murder of a politician, which has no limitations period.
The convicts took part in the court session in the videoconference regime from the detention ward they are being kept in. They once again said their confessions had been made under tortures in the first days after detention. They claimed investigators had continued to exert pressure on the jury during the trial. "It was an unfair trial, our motions were not sustained and we could not prove our innocence," Dadayev said.
The case
On July 13, the Moscow District Military Court sentenced Zaur Dadaev, brothers Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, along with Temirlan Eskherhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev to 11 to 20 years behind bars in a maximum security penal colony with a 100,000 ruble ($1,714) fine for each of them. The perpetrator of the crime, former deputy commander of the Sever (or North) battalion Dadayev got the maximum penalty. Subsequently, Eskerkhanov and the two brothers Anzor and Shadid Gubashev were sentenced to 14,19 and 16 years respectively, while Bakhayev got 11 years.
Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister under the then President, Boris Yeltsin, co-chairman of the Parnas party and a lawmaker of the Yaroslavl regional legislature, was gunned down in the center of Moscow late on February 27, 2015. Five persons, namely Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev, were arrested on suspicion of murdering the politician.
According to investigators, Ruslan Mukhudinov, a former officer of the Chechen Sever (or North) battalion, is the mastermind and organizer of the murder. Mukhudinov was charged in absentia. He has been on an international wanted list since November 2015.