Commander of Chechen Sever battalion Zaur Dadaev, who is accused of killing Boris Nemtsov, says he is innocent
Former deputy commander of the Chechen battalion, Sever Zaur Dadaev, accused of the murder of Russian opposition politician, Boris Nemtsov, while waiting in a pre-trial detention center, told a member of the Public Monitoring Commission, Kogershyn Sagieva, that he did not commit the crime. He stated that he was tortured, pressure was exerted on the jury, and the rest of the defendants perjured themselves.
If I would have committed this crime in the name of Allah, then I would be the first one to confess. Understand, I'm an officer, I'm not an idiot that would commit this crime right in front of the Kremlin, Dadaev said.
He also said that he wrote to the prosecutor's office, the ombudsman for human rights, asking for the trial to be fair, but was unable to achieve anything, because his letters were returned to his own investigator.
I'm being held for nothing. They brought me all beaten up to Lefortovo [prison]. I was electrocuted, tortured - the protocol says that I was detained on the 5th, and brought in on March 7th, where do you think I was for two days? I believe in Allah, everything that happens is a punishment, maybe I have sinned too much," Dadaev said.
On June 29, the Moscow District Military Court issued a verdict in the murder of Boris Nemtsov. The jury found Zaur Dadayev and four people, whom the prosecution called his accomplices, guilty and not deserving of indulgence.
In court, all the defendants declared their innocence. Their first testimonies, in which they confessed to the murder, they said were given due to pressure exerted by the investigation.