VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2020) The Austrian police will include a video that allegedly shows suspects identifying themselves as a Chechen blogger's relatives and claiming responsibility for his killing in the ongoing investigation, the spokesman of the Lower Austria region's police department, Johann Baumschlager, told Sputnik on Wednesday.
The police spokesman of the Lower Austria region, Walter Schwarzenecker, has previously said that the asylum seeker from Russia was shot dead in Vienna on July 4. The investigators have identified the victim as 43-year-old Mamikhan Umarov, also known as Martin Beck, while Austrian police have detained two suspects. The media later revealed that both suspects were Russian nationals from the Chechen Republic. Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia's Chechen Republic, suggested that foreign security services had a role in the killing.
"The investigation is aware of this video. It was translated into German and will be reviewed in the course of the investigation," Baumschlager said.
The video, circulating online, shows over ten men confessing their involvement in Beck's murder and asking Kadyrov for forgiveness for the insults inflicted by the blogger against him.
Baumschlager has also previously said that the victim received refugee status in Austria back in 2007, but was subsequently deprived of it and challenged the move with the authorities. Notably, the two suspects also received such status in 2003 and 2004, but it was revoked and their complaints are being processed.
The Austrian Interior Ministry told Sputnik on Thursday that the killing of the Chechen blogger must be investigated quickly and thoroughly.
