Suspect ‘admits involvement in Nemtsov killing’

Two men, named as Anzor Gubashev and Zaur Dadayev, were charged with involvement in Nemtsov’s murder.

They appeared at a preliminary court hearing on Sunday along with three other men also detained in connection with the killing.

The Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti said they were detained in Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya.

Dadaev, served in a battalion of Interior Ministry troops in Chechnya, the Ingush security council chief was quoted as saying. Gubashev, had worked in a private security company in Moscow, according to the reports.

The judge at Moscow’s Basmanny court Natalia Mushnikova, said Dadayev had admitted involvement in the killing and ordered him to be held in custody until 28 April.

Three of the suspects were seen being taken by security from one room to another inside the court house, before being locked in a cage.

The court later ruled that the men, identified as Shagid Gubashev, Ramzan Bakhayev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov, should also be kept in custody.

They were then locked in a cage and media were allowed to film them talking to officials, believed to be lawyers.

Nemtsov, 55, was shot dead on the night of 27 February near the Kremlin as he was walking home from a cafe with his girlfriend.

Some associates of the former deputy prime minister said the Kremlin stood to gain from his death, but Russian officials have denied involvement and President Vladimir Putin has vowed to catch and punish the killers.

Friends of Nemtsov have expressed fears that the authorities might try to pin the killing on ‘scapegoats’ without identifying who ordered the assassination.

Several other high-profile killings in Russia – including the 2006 shooting of jouralist Anna Politkovskaya – have been attributed to gunmen from Chechnya and neighbouring regions, while those who masterminded the crimes were never identified.