Witness identified suspect of killing of ex-Colonel Budanov

A secret witness under an assumed name of Aslan has identified Magomed Suleimanov, suspected of killing ex-Colonel Yuri Budanov; however, Suleimanov refused to plead guilty.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Yuri Budanov, who had fought in Chechnya and was imprisoned on charges of murdering a Chechen girl Elza Kungaeva, was killed at daylight on June 10 by four shots in his head. On August 26, the Presnya Court of Moscow arrested Magomed Suleimanov, a native of the village of Vedeno, on suspicion of involvement in the crime.

Witness Aslan identified Suleimanov, 41, as the native of the Caucasus, who took a car near the place of the murder. Inspectors managed to establish that after the murder the criminals fled in that car. Later, the car was found in the yard of a nearby house. According to the "Kommersant", the witness chose Suleimanov out of three persons, shown to him by investigators. However, the edition notes that Aslan could point to Budanov's suspected murderer, because he was the only person out of the three, who sat in handcuffs.

The investigation doubts on who shot at Budanov - Suleimanov himself or his accomplice. The Presnya Court of Moscow believes that namely Suleimanov was the shooter. The experts conduct dactylographic examination: the investigators compare Suleimanov's fingerprints with the fingerprints found in the car. They failed to find Suleimanov's fingerprints among the distinct fingerprint patterns and now they search among indistinct ones. Subsequently, a genetic examination can be ordered.

Suleimanov himself denies his involvement in the murder. According to the arrested, on June 10 he was at home all the day and only a few times went out to the store. Suleimanov's friends also claim that he was not involved in the murder. According to their story, he had a large influence and would unlikely commit a crime. According to acquaintances of the arrested, in Moscow Suleimanov was busy with "solving problems" - he was able to negotiate "with Baku and even with Solntsevo groupings," the "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" reports.

"Yusup-hadji is one of those people who give little promise and do much," said one of his acquaintances. Under the name of Yusup-hadji Suleimanov was known in Chechnya as a religious figure. According to the newspaper, he visited Mecca several times and was a welcome guest at various Chechen celebrations, since he had a good religious background.