MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th July, 2020) The Russian Investigative Committee will study and give a legal assessment of the 2004 investigation into the murder of businessman Yevgeny Zorya, within which ex-governor of the Khabarovsk Region, Sergey Furgal was detained as a suspect, the committee's spokeswoman, Svetlana Petrenko, said on Monday.
Furgal, a 50-year-old businessman-turned-politician from the right-wing Liberal-Democratic Party, was detained on July 9 for an alleged role in a string of killings in the 2000s. He is in custody in a Moscow prison and denies the charges.
"Taking into account the available information, the Russian Investigative Committee intends to comprehensively study and give a legal assessment of all the circumstances related to both the investigation of the murder and the concealment of the fact of the criminal prosecution of the defendants in 2004," Petrenko said.
After Zorya's murder, at the initial stage of his investigation, Furgal and his business partner Nikolai Mistryukov were detained as suspects, she said. The detention was substantiated by the testimony of witnesses and other materials of the investigation about their involvement in the death of the businessman. However, two days later, both were released, and subsequent criminal prosecution against them was terminated due to lack of sufficient evidence, Petrenko said.
At that time, Furgal had a serious influence on certain high-ranking police officers, who, in turn, informed him of the preliminary investigation, which allowed to conceal his involvement in the crime, she said.
It was also established that, along with the ongoing investigation into Zorya's murder, the criminal prosecution of Furgal and Mistryukov was not entered into official databases.
