The jury have recognized the evidence collected by the third department of the Investigative Committee’s Directorate (based in the city of Nizhny Novgorod) sufficient to convict Makhmadali Akhmadov, Roman Fataliyev, Islav Babayev and Orkhan Zokhrabov. Depending on the role of each one they were found guilty of crimes under Part 4, times “a” and “c” of Article 162, part 2, items “a”, “g” and “h” of Article 105, Part 3 of Article 30, Part 2, items “a”, “c”, “g” and “h” of Article 105 of the RF Penal Code (robbery, murder of two or more people, attempted murder of a minor).
The court and investigators have established that residents of Shigony District, Samara Regions Akhmadov and Fataliyev set up an organized criminal group in early April 2016 to commit thefts and robberies, and involved acquaintances of theirs from the town of Syzran Babayev and Zokhrabov. On the night of 24 April 2016, all of them arrived at the settlement of Ivashevka, where they picked a house for robbery, got on Gosht’s property through a hole in the fence and entered into the house through the unlocked door. Moving from room to room the accused beat sleeping family members using a wooden bat and spade hafts. Having killed two men, four women and attempted to kill a 7-year-old girl, the men stole some not very valuable things from the house and took off. The survived girl was taken to hospital next day in grave condition.
The investigative authorities had to conduct a thorough investigation in the shortest possible time. An investigative team was set up immediately and included 89 investigators and forensic experts of the Central Office, offices of the Investigative Committee in Samara, Ulyanovsk, Penza, Saratov Regions and Tatarstan involving operative agents of the Samara Region Offices of the Federal Security Service and Interior Ministry. Well-organized work allowed collecting enough evidence and finishing the investigation in less than 3 months during which members of the investigative team conducted more than 800 interrogations, 120 searches and seizures, 50 examinations of crime scenes, objects and documents, ran 230 forensic DNA, dactylographic, medical and other tests.
As a result of intense and almost round-the-clock work the investigators managed to identify and hold all the involved in the crime within 10 days after the attack.
In the very beginning of the investigation special focus was made on the examination of the crime scene and nearby areas involving a drone and different forensic equipment. The traces found allowed suggesting that the crime had been committed by several people, establishing the way and place where the perpetrators had gotten in the house, the fact that they had come by car and identifying the route they had taken before and after the crime.
During the first 24 hours the investigators got information that the perpetrators had gone to Ulyanovsk Region. More than 100 police officers and Investigative Committee’s investigators were deployed to comb the 120 km long road leading to Ulyanovsk. They found the mobile phone belonging to Gosht’s wife on the side of the road. They also found and seized footage from a gas station where the perpetrators had fueled their car right after the crime.
The experts of the Investigative Committee also managed to restore footage showing all four of the perpetrators on the scene though they had smashed and drowned the feeding unit of the CCTV system they had stolen from Gosht’s house.
Correct tactics of interrogations and irrefutable evidence made the perpetrators confess and cooperation with the investigation. They showed two places where they had hidden stolen objects – in a stream near the road to Ulyanovsk and deep in the woods about 2 km away from the road.
The accused said that they had united in a gang not long before the attack on the Goshts and had planned two robberies in other settlements. The investigation also established that nobody of the accomplices had been aware that they attacked a policeman’s house.
The guilty verdict handed down by the jury once more confirmed the conclusion made by the investigators that the attackers had had robbery in their mind when they committed a murder and an attempted murder.
The court has sentenced Akhmadov and Fataliyev to life in prison to be served in a special-security correctional facility. Babayev got 25 years in a maximum-security correctional facility, of which the first 10 years he is going to serve in prison, Zokhrabov got 26 years in prison.
Acting Head of Media Relations S.L. Petrenko
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