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Witness of Nemtsov’s murder to stay in Russia at least till midweek

Investigators plan to carry out investigation actions involving Anna Duritskay

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Anna Duritskaya, a witness of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov’s murder, will stay in Russia till midweek, her lawyer Vadim Prokhorov told TASS on Sunday.

"Investigators don’t want to let her leave for Ukraine. She will stay in Moscow till midweek, since investigators plan to carry out investigation actions involving her. I don’t rule out investigators will be through by Wednesday but it is quite possible that these actions will take longer. After they are over she will probably be let go home," he said.

He reminded that Duritskaya had already asked Ukraine’s consul to help organize her departure.

Prokhorov said his client, who was the witness in the case, was taking part in the investigation actions by her own will. He said she wanted to go to Kiev to see her mother and get over the shock.

"She is ready to come back to Russia if need be but investigators don’t want to let her go. As a witness, she is not denied the freedom of movement but actually she is under home arrest. With this in mind, we plan to complain over her illegal custody to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the human rights ombudsman," Prokhorov said, adding his client had categorically refused from the body guards provided by the investigators. "Despite this fact, two to four men are accompanying her. More men are standing guard at her apartment," he noted.

Durnitskaya was accompanying Boris Nemtsov, a co-chairman of the RPR-Parnas party and lawmaker of the Yaroslavl Region Duma /legislature/ at the moment of his murder. They were walking along the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge just a stone’s throw from the Kremlin overnight to February 28, when he was shot dead.