Vladimir Putin has pardoned Temirlan Eskerkhanov, one of those convicted of the 2015 murder of opposition politician and former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov. Eskerkhanov has signed a contract with the Defense Ministry and will take part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Information about the pardon of Temirlan Eskerkhanov by Vladimir Putin Russian government media reported on Saturday. Nemtsov's colleague and friend, recently released in a group of political prisoners Ilya Yashin called the decision “a mockery of the memory” of the killed oppositionist.
Vladimir PutinPAP/EPA
“Putin pardoned Eskerkhanov, a convicted Kadyrov bandit. He participated in the murder of Nemtsov, and now he will go to kill in Ukraine, which Boris defended from Russian aggression,” Yashin wrote in a comment on Facebook.
Eskerkhanov, a former policeman, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2017 for complicity in the murder, along with four other perpetrators. The court then found Zaur Dadayev, sentenced to 20 years in prison, to be the direct executor. According to the investigation materials, Eskerkhanov collected information about Germanstransported other perpetrators by car, and after the murder he helped them hide.
Nemtsov murdered near the Kremlin
Boris Nemtsov, 55, was shot dead on the evening of February 27, 2015, in the center of Moscow, near the Kremlin. The oppositionist was one of Putin's most vocal critics. He accused him of an aggressive policy toward Ukraine.
The bridge where Boris Nemtsov diedPAP/EPA
Nemtsov's family lawyers believed that the real perpetrators had been caught, but the investigation did not identify the organizers and those who ordered the murder. Nemtsov's family lawyer Vadim Prokhorov assessed that “the traces lead to the closest circle of Ramzan Kadyrov”, the leader of Chechnya.
Main image source: PAP/EPA