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Suspected hitman confesses to crime

Chief architect of Leningrad Region's Vsevolzhsk district Eduard Akopyan was shot and killed in Vsevolzhsk on January 29

MOSCOW, August 14 (Itar-Tass) - The Investigative Committee has finished the probe against the suspected killer of chief architect of Leningrad Region's Vsevolzhsk district Eduard Akopyan, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

The criminal case will be reviewed under special procedure which envisions a softer sentence, as the defendant had confessed to crime and cooperated with the investigator, Markin said.

Defendant Dmitry Baranov, a 36-year-old Vyborg resident, and his lawyer are now reading the case materials.

Eduard Akopyan, 51, was shot and killed in Vsevolzhsk on January 29. The investigators said he had driven up to the office of a company to collect his wife. The killer had been waiting for him there. The architect died of a gunshot wound to the head on the way to hospital.

Baranov was detained at an airport as he was trying to fly abroad.

The defendant had been hired to kill the architect; he had been tailing the victim to learn his daily routine, the investigator said.

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