MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. Lawyers of politician Boris Nemtsov’s relatives have asked the prosecution Thursday to question several high-ranking officials from Chechnya, including Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, as witnesses in Nemtsov’s murder case.
"We officially filed a request to the prosecution, as we have information that these people [Chechen officials] may know something about the circumstances of Nemtsov’s murder," lawyer Olga Mikhaylova told TASS. Nemtsov’s relatives asked prosecutors to question Ramzan Kadyrov, State Duma deputy Adam Delimkhanov and former officer of the Chechen battalion "Sever" (North) Ruslan Geremeev.
Five people have been arrested in the Nemtsov murder case - Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shaghid Gubashev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhaev. All five defendants deny their guilt.
Investigators believe that Dadayev was Nemtsov’s assassin while other arrested were his accomplices. All the suspects have been charged with offenses under the clauses of Article 105 of Russia’s Criminal Code (an assassination committed by a group upon complicity or on contract compounded with felony, extortions or banditry) and also Article 222 (illegal purchasing, storage, transfer, or handling of weaponry and munitions upon conspiracy).
If proven by the court, charges under these clauses may bring prison terms of eight to twenty years or life sentences.
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.