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SK orders 9 expert examinations in gangland assassination case

The 73-year-old Usoyan, a native of Georgia, was one of the most influential criminal leaders of the past two decades

MOSCOW, January 17 (Itar-Tass) - SK specialists will carry out nine expert examinations within the case over the high-profile assassination of criminal leader Aslan Usoyan, also known as Ded Khasan, a city law-enforcement official told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

"The investigator has ordered to carry out three trace, four biological and two dactyloscopic expert examinations. The examination of the recordings retrieved from CCTV cameras on the houses close to the scene of crime is continuing," the official said.

Seven 9mm shell casings and fingerprints of the suspected killer were found at the place from which he had supposedly shot and killed Ded Khasan.

Spokesman for the SK department for Moscow Sergei Stukalov, in comments on the crime, said Ded Khasan, accompanied by two guards, arrived at the restaurant at Povarskaya Street by 14:00, Moscow time on Wednesday. One guard was opening the door to a welcoming party of three restaurant employees. The killer shot as Usoyan was entering, and a guard promptly pushed Usoyan inside and closed the door. "The other guard who remained outside pulled out his service pistol and shot in the killer's direction," according to Stukalov.

Usoyan was wounded in the neck, and a restaurant employee was wounded in the thigh and chest. The killer made five more shots at the closed door.

Restaurant personnel called an ambulance, but Usoyan's guards provided emergency medical aid to him, tried to stop bleeding, and rushed him to the Botkin hospital without waiting for the medics. Usoyan later died in hospital, the spokesman said.

The 30-year-old restaurant employee was rushed to the Sklifasovsky emergency medicine hospital. She is in an IT ward in critical condition.

The SK said Usoyan had been gunned down by a professional who had used a VAL silenced assault rifle, which is standard equipment of special task force units. The dedicated ammunition can puncture bullet-proof vests of 2nd class or a 6mm-thick steel sheet.

The 73-year-old Usoyan, a native of Georgia, was one of the most influential criminal leaders of the past two decades. Media reports said he was an ally of Vyacheslav Ivankov /alias Yaponchik/, another criminal boss gunned down in Moscow in 2009.

Ded Khasan was reportedly detained in Ukraine in April 2010 for carrying a fake passport and deported to Russia where he was set free. He survived the assassination attempt on his life on September 16, 2010, believed to have been masterminded by his rivals in the criminal underworld.

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