Suspect of May 26 explosion released in Stavropol

In Stavropol, lawyer Evsei Osinovskiy, who is defending Aslan Patiev, a native of Ingushetia and a suspect of committing an explosion in central city on May 26, said that his client is at large: the inquiry has no claims against him.

During almost two weeks in custody and investigatory actions Patiev was not presented any charges. "Besides, we hadn't got the expert's conclusions from Moscow, where Patiev's things had been sent for detecting explosive traces. The release of my client was a complete surprise for me," Mr Osinovskiy said.

Inspectors, not going into detail, confined themselves to the following formulation: "Patiev's criminal prosecution was stopped because of absence of crime attributes in his actions and his non-involvement in the present criminal case."

However, they orally asked the former suspect not to leave the city for three days to finalize some formalities. Patiev did not object. Evsei Osinovskiy views his client's sudden release as his personal achievement, since he is "highly respected in the city."

According to the lawyer, Patiev does not plan to struggle for any compensation for the two weeks he had spent behind bars. Mr Osinovskiy has noted that his client "suffered physically, but it was a rather light harm." The lawyer believes that "operative agents were not far beyond the law."