Keilin's defence may not appeal against extension of his custody

Today, Roman Belan, advocate of Andrei Keilin, who was detained on accusation of murdering two students in Stavropol, has informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he will possibly not appeal against the extension of the custody term for his client, since the case is of political character.

According to the advocate, the Leninskiy District Court of the city of Stavropol has extended by one month more Andrei Keilin's custody, due to expire on August 6, under the petition of the Stavropol Territorial Public Prosecutor's Office, which had justified the need of extension by the necessity to hold a number of additional examinations.

"I cannot say that the eyewitnesses who had identified Keilin as a culprit gave up their evidences. To be more precise, one of the witnesses said that he had got 100 percent mistaken. The second witness said: 'After a lapse of time, I can't say for sure that it was Keilin.' Besides, the character of the wounds indicated that the killer was well familiar with a knife. However, Keilin is not just unfamiliar, he has never put a knife into a chicken in his life," the advocate said.

Alexei Selyukov, Ombudsman for the Stavropol Territory, has also spoken in support of defendant Keilin and said that his alibi "has not been refuted by the investigatory bodies," and this "gives grounds to assert that his custody on murder charges is illegal".