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A Moscow district military court has begun to hear the case of Boris Nemtsov’s killing. There are five accused – Zaur Dadayev, Shadid Gubashev, Anzor Gubashev, Temirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev. The Major Cases Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee charged them with a hired murder as an organized group and with illegal circulation of firearms (Part 2, items “g” and “h” of Article 105 and Part 3 of Article 222 of the RF Penal Code).

It took investigators less than a year to solve the crime. According to them, in late September 2014, Ruslan Mukhudinov and other individuals offered Beslan Shavanov, Dadayev, Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, Bakhayev and Eskerkhanov to kill Boris Nemtsov for a reward of some 15 million rubles. The said people agreed, formed and organized group and started planning the murder. They prepared the murder thoroughly: they studied Nemtsov’s lifestyle, his residences and the places he frequented, put him under surveillance and chose suitable way and place for murder, necessary weapon, vehicle and communications. They also looked for the ways and routes of fleeing the crime scene.

The investigators have managed to restore the timeline of the events on the day Nemtsov was killed. On 27 February 2015, at about 11 AM, Zaur Dadayev carrying a 9mm gun together with Anzor Gubashev and Shavanov arrived to the residential building in Malaya Ordynka Street where Nemtsov lived to watch him and possibly kill. At about 9:45 PM the same day, when Nemtsov was driving to GUM shopping mall, the perpetrators followed him. After Nemtsov left the building and headed home, Shavanov and Gubashev signaled Dadayev that the conditions were right for the murder and filled him in on Nemtstov’s route. At about 11:31 PM, Dadayev following Nemtsov and Duritskaya along a sidewalk of Bolshoy Moskvoretsky bridge made at least 6 shots at Nemtsov. The politician was killed on the spot.

At the moment of the crime Anzor Gubashev and Shavanov were in the getaway car watching the neighborhood in order to warn the killer if there was any kind of danger, including arrival of the police. After the murder Dadayev, Shavanov and Anzor Gubashev took off immediately. Later Mukhudinov, Shadid Gubashev, Eskerkhanov, Bakhayev and others helped the three accomplices to hide from the police and leave Moscow Region.

The investigators checked the statements made by Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev that they had killed Nemtsov out of religious motives, as he had supported Prophet Mohammed’s  caricatures published in French magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015. However, the evidence shows that the members of the organized group had started preparing the murder in September 2014, which makes the religious motive unviable. The same evidence confirms the mercenary motive that is the murder for which they had received at least 15 million rubles.

The investigation against Shavanov was dropped in November 2015 due to his death during his suicidal bombing in the city of Grozny, when the police tried to detain him.

Ruslan Mukhudinov, the man who ordered and organized the murder, is internationally wanted. The investigative Committee continues the investigation against him and other so far unidentified persons.