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

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Zaur Dadayev, the main suspect in the murder case of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov, pleaded not guilty at the Moscow City Court on Wednesday, a TASS correspondent has reported.

Investigator Anton Migunov earlier said that Dadayev had given confessionary evidence many times that confirmed his guilt and complicity of other accomplices in the murder.

"My testimony was given under pressure and under orders. There are no witnesses and I have an alibi as during the murder I was at home," Dadayev said.

The Moscow City Court ruled on Wednesday that the arrest of three suspects in the murder case of Russian politician Boris Nemtsov is unlawful and sent the issue for revision to the Basmanny Court of Moscow, a TASS correspondent has reported from the court.

Until the next court session, the three out of a total of five suspects in the case - Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, Khamzat Bakhayev and Shadid Gubashev - are to be kept in custody.

The Basmanny Court is due to review the motion of the investigators until April 8. "The exact date will be clear in the near future when the materials return from the appeals instance of the Moscow City Court," the court’s press secretary Anna Fadeyeva said.

On March 8, Moscow’s Basmanny court authorized the arrest of five people: Zaur Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Khamzat Bakhayev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov.

The Moscow City Court said the decision on the arrest of the suspects was taken by the court during one session and not separately. Such an order of choosing a restriction measure violated the rights of the parties in the case, the judge said on Wednesday.

All the five suspects have been charged with murder committed by a group of persons on previous concert for self-interested aims or on contract; as well as illegal acquisition and storage of weapons. If convicted, the suspects may face up to 20 years in jail or even life sentence.

Nemtsov, co-chair of RPR-Parnas and deputy of the Yaroslavl regional duma, was killed in downtown Moscow late on February 27. Investigators believe that Zaur Dadayev was the killer of the politician, while the Gubashev brothers, Bakhayev and Eskerkhanov were the accomplices.