MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. Five prisoners escaped from a pre-trial detention center in the town of Istra, Moscow region, by unscrewing the locks on their doors, Spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee’s regional branch Olga Vrady told TASS.

According to her, one of the fugitives is Alexander Mavridi, charged with murdering a businessman and unlawfully depriving a Moscow lawyer of liberty. Prosecutors are looking into the incident.

A law enforcement source told TASS that the prisoners could have broken a food tray and then picked a lock, escaping through the back door. The fugitives have no weapons.

According to the law enforcement source, police officers could have helped the defendants escape. "One of the versions is that police officers were in collusion with the fugitives, helped them escape and even set out their escape route," the source told TASS.

According to investigators, Mavridi and an accomplice of his killed a businessman with a crossbow in the village of Anosino on November 2, 2020. Additionally, Mavridi and some other offenders held a lawyer captive for several years, extorting property worth over 55 mln rubles ($750,000) from him. The other four fugitives, Moldovan nationals, face stealing charges.