A Russian man has been discovered responsible of the 2019 homicide of a Georgian Chechen man in broad daylight in Berlin.
Prosecutors say that Vadim Krasikov had fatally shot Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a park on the orders of Moscow.
The Berlin regional court docket mentioned in its verdict that Russian safety companies supplied the 56-year-old with a false id, pretend passport, and the assets to hold out the killing.
Krasikov — who had denied the costs — was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Berlin court docket on Wednesday.
Russia at all times denied any involvement within the loss of life of Khangoshvili, a person who had fought towards Russian troops in Chechnya. Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has beforehand described the allegations as “completely groundless”.
However German prosecutors mentioned there was ample proof indicating that Russian officers have been behind the order.
The alleged political assassination has fueled tensions between Berlin and Germany, which have escalated following the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
A lawyer for seven family of Khangoshvili mentioned Russia had tried to “ship a message” to different political enemies along with his killing.
Krasikov bore “notably grave duty”, judges mentioned, and he is not going to be entitled to computerized parole after 15 years below German customized.
Who was Zelimkhan Khangoshvili?
Though denying involvement in his loss of life, Russia had lengthy categorised Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili as a “terrorist”.
The 40-year-old Georgian citizen had led an anti-Russian militia within the second Chechen struggle from 2000 to 2004, German prosecutors discovered.
In 2008, he was tasked with assembling a Georgian unit towards the Russians in South Ossetia, however peace was negotiated earlier than the unit was deployed.
Russian authorities had accused Khangoshvili of being a member of the “Caucasus Emirate” extremist organisation, in line with German prosecutors.
He had beforehand survived a number of assassination makes an attempt and continued to obtain threats after fleeing along with his household to Germany in 2016, the place he had claimed asylum.
Then on 23 August 2019, Khangoshvili was killed in broad daylight on his method to a mosque in Berlin’s small Kleiner Tiergarten park.
What do we all know in regards to the killing?
Prosecutors say Khangoshvili’s killer approached him from behind on a bicycle and shot him twice within the torso with a Glock handgun outfitted with a silencer.
The sufferer was knocked to the bottom by the pressure of the bullets earlier than the assailant then fatally shot him a 3rd time within the head.
German investigators say the killing had been “deliberate for a very long time” and had been executed “in chilly blood”.
The Berlin regional court docket heard witnesses, who mentioned they’d alerted police after seeing a person dump a wig, garments, and a bicycle within the close by Spree river. The knowledge allowed officers to arrest the suspect earlier than he may escape the scene on an electrical scooter.
The suspect was later recognized as Vadim Krasikov, a Russian citizen who claims to go by the title of Vadim Sokolov.
Krasikov was discovered with round €3,700 and 110 Polish zlotys (>€24), which prosecutors mentioned was to pay his bills in Berlin and support in his flight from Germany after the homicide.
How facial recognition led to the identification
Prosecutors said that Krasikov — utilizing the alias Sokolov — had travelled to the German capital in August 2019 on the orders of the Russian authorities. Earlier than the capturing, they are saying he had additionally visited Paris and Warsaw as a vacationer.
“The defendant took the contract, both for an unknown sum of cash or as a result of he shared the motive of those that gave the contract to liquidate the [victim] as a political enemy in revenge,” Ronald Georg had instructed the court docket.
“The accused was a commander of a particular unit of the Russian secret service FSB,” prosecutors added of their closing assertion.
Through the trial, investigators revealed a personal photograph of Krasikov with two tattoos an identical to these of the suspect.
German authorities additionally used facial recognition to match the suspect to a 2014 {photograph} distributed by Russia over a Moscow killing.
Berlin says they’ve discovered no proof that the homicide of Khangoshvili was “contracted by a non-state actor”.
One month earlier than the killing, Krasikov had obtained a brand new passport within the Russian metropolis of Bryansk, which he used to use for a French visa on the common consulate in Moscow, prosecutors mentioned.
In his visa utility, the suspect claimed to work for a St. Petersburg agency generally known as Zao Rust, they added.
Investigators later discovered that Zao Rust’s fax quantity was one utilized by two corporations which might be operated by the Russian Protection Ministry.
Tensions heightened between Germany and Russia
The court docket’s verdict concludes an extended case that has exasperated the worsening relationship between Berlin and Moscow.
On Wednesday, the Russian embassy in Berlin denounced the court docket’s verdict and mentioned allegations of Russian involvement have been an “absurd thesis”.
“We take into account this verdict to be a biased, politically motivated determination that severely aggravates the already tough Russian-German relations,” a assertion learn.
“This final result is of nice concern to us, is an apparent act of hostility and won’t be left unresponsive.”
Germany has denied claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that he had known as for Khangoshvili’s extradition years beforehand.
After the killing, Germany expelled two Russian diplomats citing a scarcity of cooperation with the investigation. The transfer prompted Russia to oust two German diplomats in retaliation.
Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma’s overseas affairs committee, known as Germany’s expulsion of diplomats “utterly crooked logic”.
Relations between the 2 international locations have been additional soured since allegations of Russian involvement within the 2015 hacking of the German parliament and the theft of paperwork from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal workplace.
Two weeks earlier than Germany’s current Bundestag elections, Berlin additionally opened an investigation into contemporary cyberattacks on MPs.
