Suspects in murder of Kremlin critic Nemtsov face jury trial

Five suspects in the murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, whose killing unleashed global condemnation, will face a jury trial in Moscow, a court ruled Tuesday.

A Moscow district military court ruled that the case would be determined by a jury, whose members will be selected on August 24, RIA Novosti state news agency reported, citing a court spokeswoman.

Nemtsov, an opposition figurehead and former deputy prime minister, was gunned down on the evening of February 27, 2015 as he walked across a bridge from the Kremlin.

The suspects charged with the murder had asked to be tried by jury as they face up to life in jail.

This request was backed by lawyers representing Nemtsov’s family, who said he would have wanted the trial to be as transparent and objective as possible.

Jury trials are relatively unusual in Russia and are only used for very serious offences punishable by a life sentence.

A lawyer representing Nemtsov’s daughter Zhanna, Olga Mikhailova, said that 100 people would be invited for jury selection and the procedure should go “fairly quickly.”

The five defendants — named as Zaur Dadayev, Shadid and Anzor Gubashev, Bemirlan Eskerkhanov and Khamzat Bakhayev — are all ethnic Chechens.

Investigators have identified a sixth man as their ringleader, Chechen security official Ruslan Mukhudinov, but he has fled abroad.

Investigators say Mukhudinov approached the other men in September 2014 and offered them 15 million rubles (about $235,000) for the murder.

Nemtsov’s relatives and supporters are angry that the authorities have failed to bring the masterminds to justice and point the finger of blame at Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as the Kremlin itself.

Kadyrov had a long-running feud with Nemtsov and has made calls to eliminate Russia’s “enemy” opposition.

At Tuesday’s closed-door hearing, the court refused a request by lawyers representing Nemtsov’s daughter for the case to be reclassified as a political assassination.

“It’s completely obvious that the motive for the murder of Boris Nemtsov was not domestic or commercial but a desire to halt his political and public activity,” the family’s lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov, told journalists.