ST. PETERSBURG, December 1. /TASS/. St. Petersburg historian Oleg Sokolov, charged with murder after being pulled from a river with a backpack containing human remains, has been taken to Moscow to undergo a psychological and psychiatric evaluation, his lawyer Alexander Pochuyev said.
"He was transferred to Moscow for a psychological and psychiatric evaluation," the lawyer said.
Early on November 9, Sokolov, born in 1956, was rescued from the Moyka River in St. Petersburg with a backpack containing fragments of a human body. Morer remains were later found at his apartment. A criminal case was opened on murder charges (part 1, article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code).
Sokolov’s victim was identified as Anastasia Yeshchenko, a postgraduate student who had been Sokolov’s co-author in joint studies and had sexual relationship with the man. Yeshchenko, born in Russia’s southern Krasnodar Territory, graduated from the St. Petersburg State University three years ago to continue as a postgraduate student. In the court, the suspect confessed to the murder on grounds of personal conflict. He said Yeshchenko had been antagonistic to his two minor children of his first marriage.
Three days after the criminal case was launched, another bag with fragments of Yeshchenko’s body was found in water in St. Petersburg's Kirovsky district.
Divers continued to comb the Moyka River bed until Friday, November 28, but found nothing.
On November 11, St. Petersburg’s Oktyabrsky district court ruled to place the man in custody for two months.