Main suspect in Nemtsov murder case retracts confession

Zaur Dadaev

One of the suspects in Russian politician Boris Nemtsov's murder, Zaur Dadaev, claims he had perjured himself when admitting his guilt, the newspaper said on its website late on Tuesday, citing its correspondents who, as a member of a public monitoring commission, met with Dadaev at the Lefortovo detention centre.

Earlier on Tuesday, judge of Moscow's Basmanny court Natalia Mushnikova, while reading out the court's arrest warrant, said Dadaev had admitted his involvement in Nemtsov's murder. Dadaev provided no comment at court but asked for a fair trial.

"They were crying all the time: 'Did you kill Nemtsov?' I answered no. At the moment of detention I was with my friend, my former subordinate Ruslan Yusupov. They told me they would let him free if I confess. I agreed. I thought I will save him and will be taken to Moscow alive... I thought as soon as I am in Moscow I will tell court the truth. That I am not guilty. But the judge did even let me speak," the quotes Dadaev as saying.

He said he knew a witness who could prove his non-involvement in the murder. "Who will prove my non-involvement? By the way, another man, Ali Matiev, was there. He can prove it. Where is he?," Dadaev said.

The public monitoring commission also met with two more suspects - Anzor and Shagid Gubashevs. The latter said he was not implicated in the murder. Moreover, he said he had been beaten up by the police.

Boris Nemtsov, a Russian opposition politician and a lawmaker of the Yaroslavl Region Duma legislature, was shot dead on Moscow's Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge just a stone's throw from the Kremlin overnight to February 28. The principal witness of the crime, Ukrainian national Anna Duritskaya, who had been with Nemtsov at the moment of his murder, left for Ukraine after being interrogated. She pledged she would cooperate with investigators.

Nemtsov was buried at the Troyekurov Cemetery in Moscow on March 3.