Russian governor held on suspicion of organizing murders

Investigators and the Federal Security Service have detained Governor of Khabarovsk Territory Sergei Furgal on suspicion of organizing the murders of entrepreneurs, the Russian Investigative Committee said Thursday, reported Xinhua.

"The initiation of a criminal case against Furgal was the result of long and painstaking work of investigators to uncover particularly serious crimes committed in 2004-2005 by an organized criminal group in Khabarovsk Territory and Amur Region against citizens engaged in entrepreneurial activities," it said in a statement.

In April 2019, as part of efforts to solve crimes committed in the past years, criminal cases involving attempted and executed murders of business people in the Far East were discovered by local investigators and transferred to the Main Directorate for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Russian Investigative Committee.

During preliminary investigations, perpetrators of a number of crimes and one of the organizers were identified and they pointed to Furgal as the organizer of all these crimes, the statement said.

The information obtained has been verified and sufficient evidence has been collected to detain Furgal, it said.

Besides Furgal, four active members of an organized group were previously detained, arrested and charged depending on the role of each of them in the committed crimes, it said.

In the near future, an investigation will be carried out with Furgal in Moscow, and investigators plan to ask the court to issue an order to put the official in custody.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet made a decision to relieve Furgal of his duties, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.