Igor Izmestyev (right) said he would appeal the court decision, calling the accusations absurd.
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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Ex-Senator in Jail for 10 Days Suspected of Murder
A Moscow court sanctioned an arrest of a former Federation Council member on Thursday suspecting him of organizing a murder. Igor Izmestyev was detained in Kyrgyzstan and forced to go to Russia. The former official claims that the arrest was unlawful.
Igor Izmestyev is suspected of plotting the murder of Galina Perepelkina, a notary, in summer 2001. A request to issue an arrest warrant for him was filed by Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin after anonymous witnesses mentioned Mr. Izmestyev as the organizer of the crime who found a former boxer, Sergey Finagin, to do the job. The reason for the crime is not named.
The Basmanny Court of Moscow ruled Thursday to arrest Igor Izmestyev so that the suspect does not abscond. The ex-Senator claimed that he had no intensions of running away from prosecutors. He says he gave up his powers as a deputy and left abroad in December. But he never received any court summons. Therefore, Mr. Izmestyev considers this arrest illegal. The court sanctioned a ten-day arrest for him as a suspect of the murder. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office is to bring charges against Izmestyev over this period or it may ask to prolong the arrest.
The operation to arrest Izmestyev in Bishkek was headed by FSB General Antonov with the help of the Kyrgyz National Security Service. The former Federation Council deputy was forced to fly to Novosibirsk and then to Moscow. The defense is to contest the arrest as unlawful since Izmestyev was not on the wanted list and, therefore, was detained in Kyrgyzstan illegally.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 19, 2007
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