News

Central Federal District Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee has finished investigating a criminal case against Grigory Shevchenko, 28, and Yurik Khasanov, 22. Depending on the role of each one they are charged with crimes under part 2 of article 209 of the RF Criminal Code (membership in a gang), paragraphs “a”, “g” and “h” of part 2 of article 105 (contracted murder), part 3 of article 222 (illegal circulation of firearms). The third member of the gang Dmitry Makarenko has already been convicted.

According to the investigation, in 2005, 31-year-old resident of the Moscow Region Andrey Safronov created a gang to commit murders and other crimes on hire in respect of businessmen. The gang consisted of two friends of his: Makarenko and Khasanov, Shevchenko joined them later in 2009. It has been found that members of the gang were watching their victims for a long time and used illegally acquired cold weapons and fire arms when killing them. According to the distribution of roles, attacks on victims were carried out by Makarenko and Hasanov, and in the last case, Shevchenko followed the victim and gave perpetrators a signal to act. The gang ceased to exist in December 2011 due to the fact that most of its members were arrested. One more member of the gang Dmitry Makarenko concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement, therefore a criminal case against him was severed into a separate lawsuit. The court sentenced him to 17 years in high-security penal colony.

Investigators have gathered enough evidence, therefore, the criminal case with the approved indictment has been forwarded to court to be tried on the merits.

The organizer of the gang Safronov, who was charged and remanded in custody in absentia, has been put on the international wanted list. The suspected hirer of Gavrilov’s killers Yuri Israilov is on the international wanted list, too. At present the investigation is establishing contractors of other crimes committed by the gang. Investigation is ongoing.