Investigators suspect Sagid Murtazaliev of financing terrorism

Sagid Murtazaliev, the head of the Dagestani Branch of the Pension Fund of Russia (PFR), is suspected of involvement in murders and financing terrorism.

On July 27, in the locality named Krivaya Balka in Dagestan, armoured vehicles and armed men surrounded the summer cottage of Murtazaliev, who is also an MP of Dagestan, and prior to his appointment as the head of the local PFR Branch, he headed the Kizlyar District. Murtazaliev is officially on sick leave. According to law enforcement bodies, he is hiding in Dubai. At night on July 27, Andrei Vinogradov, the current head of the Kizlyar District, was detained in Dagestan.

The Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) has reported that Murtazaliev and Vinogradov are figurants in the case opened on several crimes, including the murders in 2010 of the chief of the operational gas service of the Kizlyar District of the LLC "Dagestangazservis" and of the deputy head of the Centre to Combat Extremism (CCE) of the MIA of the Republic of Dagestan; an attempted murder of the deputy head of the administration of the municipal formation "Urban District of City of Kizlyar"; and of financing terrorism.

The website of the ICRF reports that there is another figurant in the case – Omar Asadaluev, who, like Murtazaliev, is hiding outside the Russian Federation and will be put on the wanted list.

Earlier, investigators said that they would insist on the arrest of Vinogradov on the case of murders and financing terrorism.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.