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Boris Nemtsov murder in Moscow

Investigators considering contract killing version in oppositionist Nemtsov’s murder

The Moscow City Court is considering on Wednesday the defense’s appeals against the arrest of defendants in the case of Nemtsov’s murder

© YURI KOCHETKOV/EPA/ТАСС

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Main suspect in Nemtsov murder withdraws confession, says he has alibi

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Investigators are considering the version of a contract killing to be a key one in the murder of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, investigator Anton Migunov said in the Moscow City Court on Wednesday.

"Investigators continue seeking those who ordered the killing of Nemtsov. Investigators are considering the version that Boris Nemtsov’s murder was a contract killing," Migunov said.

The Moscow City Court is considering on Wednesday the defense’s appeals against the arrest of defendants in the case of Nemtsov’s murder.

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Russian opposition and state figure, deputy of a regional legislature, the Yaroslavl city duma, Boris Nemtsov, was shot dead on downtown Moscow’s Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge late on February 27 from a handgun. Nemtsov was a co-chair of the RPR-Parnas party. He had held a number of government positions in the 1990s.

On March 8, 2015, Moscow’s Basmanny Court arrested five defendants in the case: Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Khamzat Bakhayev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov. According to investigators, Dadayev was the killer of the politician, and the others were his accomplices.

All five defendants were charged with part 2 of Article 105 of Russia’s Criminal Code (murder committed by a group of people in collusion for reasons of greed or for money, as well as connected with robbery, extortion or banditry) and illegal turnover of weapons (Article 222).

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