MOSCOW, October 17 (Itar-Tass) - Vladimir Lukin, Russia’s commissioner for human rights, calls on law enforcement bodies for an objective investigation of the murder of Muscovite Yegor Shcherbakov. The ombudsman noted that, pending the court verdict, the presumption of innocence applies to suspect Orkhan Zeinalov.
Commenting on the high-profile criminal case to Itar-Tass, Lukin referred to the circumstances of Zeinalov’s detention. “I don’t think it right that such scenes [of detention] are shown by the mass media. I am in general against the mass media gloating over scenes of violence,” the ombudsman said.
He expressed the hope that “the investigation will be objective.” “Naturally, Zeinalov is a suspect, but it is for the court to establish the degree of his being guilty or not guilty,” Lukin stressed.
“Two persons, citizens of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan, were killed at about the same time,” he said. “I do hope that the appropriate bodies will be as diligent in investigating these crimes,” he said.
Azerbaijani citizen Orkhan Zeinalov was detained on October 15 on suspicion of having killed 25-year old Muscovite Yegor Shcherbakov in the capital’s Biryulyovo Zapadnoye district on the night to October 10. Moscow’s Presnensky court on Thursday granted the investigators’ request that Zeinalov be taken into custody. “He will be faced with charges when the investigative actions are completed in the days ahead,” a source in the Investigative Committee said.