‘Contract killing’ probed
Germany moves on brazen slaying of Georgian man, expels Russian diplomats
FEDERAL German prosecutors yesterday took over the investigation of a brazen daylight slaying of a Georgian man on the streets of Berlin, saying evidence suggests it was ordered either by the government of Russia or the Chechen Republic.
The Foreign Ministry immediately announced the expulsion of two Russian diplomats following the announcement, citing a lack of cooperation with the investigation of the August 23 killing of the 40-year-old man in the capital.
“Russian authorities, despite repeated, high-level and insistent demands, did not participate enough in the investigation,” the Foreign Ministry said. It did not identify the names or the functions of the two diplomats being expelled.
The case threatens to inflame tensions between Russia and Germany, and prosecutors’ spokesperson Markus Schmitt said his office decided to take over the investigation from Berlin state prosecutors after the political nature of the case that has come to light.
“There are enough indications of the fact that the death of Tornike K was either contracted by government offices of the Russian Federation or the autonomous Chechen Republic as part of the Russian Federation to suggest a political motive,” Schmitt’s office said, using only a last initial for the victim in line with German privacy laws.
Russia scoffed at the suggestion, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov telling reporters there are “no serious suspicions there, and there can’t be”.
“What do Russian authorities have to do with it?” he asked, calling the allegations “absolutely groundless suggestions”.
Tornike K, who has widely been identified in reports on the killing by his alias Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was a Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity who fought against Russian troops in Chechnya. He had previously survived multiple assassination attempts and continued to receive threats after fleeing to Germany in 2016.
He was listed as a terrorist by Russian authorities and accused of being a member of the “Caucasus Emirate” organisation, prosecutors said.
According to reports, Khangoshvili was on his way to mosque for Friday prayers in Berlin’s Tiergarten when his killer sped up on an electric bike and shot him three times, then sped away and ditched the bike, weapon and a wig in the Spree River.
He was spotted as he got rid of the evidence by passers-by, who alerted police.
They were able to quickly identify and arrest a suspect, identified at the time as 48-year-old Russian national Vadim K, near the scene and he has been in custody since the slaying.
Prosecutors said he went by the alias Vadim S, and German and international news outlets have reported his full name as Vadim Sokolov, a man with links to organised crime in Russia.
Prosecutors said they had found multiple indications that Vadim K carried out the attempt with official help, and no evidence that the hit was “contracted by a non-state actor”.
Using facial recognition techniques, investigators were able to match the suspect to a photograph as part of a request for help Russia sent to partner agencies in 2014 seeking the arrest of Vadim K for a killing in Moscow. That request was cancelled on July 7, 2015, and a person with the identity of Vadim S first appears in September 2015 with a Russian passport.
Russian authorities confirmed the suspect’s passport, found on him at the time of his arrest, was a valid document, prosecutors said.
Under the identity Vadim S, prosecutors said the suspect flew on August17 this year from Moscow to Paris and had been granted a visa by French authorities. |