Three Moscow policemen have been charged in the fatal stabbing of a motorist on September 5, and their superiors in the Moscow precinct where they worked have been dismissed, the Investigative Committee said on Wednesday.
“According to the indictment, on September 5, the suspects commandeered a BMW-530 belonging to a 22-year-old acquaintance. While seated in the car, they stabbed the owner 77 times,” Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
The three policemen and one other man have been detained. A fifth man who is wanted in connection with the case remains at large, Markin added.
Investigators said the suspects were believed to be part of a ring specializing in car theft, abduction and extortion.
Moscow police chief Anatoly Yakunin has dismissed the entire leadership of the police precinct in Moscow’s Khoroshevo-Mnevniki neighborhood where the accused policemen worked, the Investigative Committee statement said without specifying who was sacked. In addition, Yakunin said he would select a replacement chief from a different part of the city.
Moreover, all officers in the precinct will undergo a review to determine their fitness to perform their duties, the Investigative Committee said.
Another law enforcement source said the fourth suspect in the murder was an apprentice traffic patrolman and that the killers extorted money from the victim’s parents before driving to a site outside the city where they killed and buried him.
The source said the suspects were taken into custody on Tuesday and are cooperating with the investigation.
The Interior Ministry agents involved in the two-month investigation that finally cracked the case will receive commendations, said Sergei Derevyanko, the head of the Interior Ministry for the Central Federal District, which includes Moscow.
