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In Saint Petersburg, man to serve life sentence for murder committed in 2004

The evidence gathered by the Main Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the city of Saint Petersburg was found to be sufficient by the court to issue an indictment for Nikamagomed Karanaev, given a life sentence, and Dmitry Tumin. They were found guilty of an offence under Article 105, Part 2, Paragraphs G and H (murder committed by a group of persons under a preliminary conspiracy out of mercenary motives).

According to investigation and the court, no later than May 2004, Karanaev had organized a criminal group for committing grave and especially grave offences, involving kidnapping and murdering of disadvantaged citizens of Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region, and obtaining proprietorship for their real estate objects by fraud, and had engaged Tumin and Dmitry Blokhin to his group.

In 2004, the co-perpetrators, after winning trust of an inmate of one of children's homes, had obtained her room on Nevsky Prospect by fraud and sold it. They had been previously charged for the offence.

In November, Tumin and Blokhin, acting under a criminal plan worked out with Karanaev, drove the victim through deception to one of collective gardens of Vyborg District of Leningrad Region, where they strangled her and set her body on fire. Upon their return to Saint Petersburg, they received a cash reward from Karanaev.

The court sentenced Karanaev to a life imprisonment in a penal colony of special regime; Tumin to 22 years of imprisonment in a strict regime colony.

A probe into Blokhin, who signed a pre-trial immunity agreement, was referred to the court earlier, and the indictment was already issued.