A former Chechen police officer who admitted to taking part in the murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov "likely confessed under torture", a member of the Kremlin's rights council told AFP today.
"There are reasons that lead us to believe Zaur Dadayev confessed under torture," said Andrei Babushkin, adding he had seen "numerous wounds" on the body of the prime suspect in the killing during a visit to his Moscow prison cell on Tuesday.
Zaur Dadayev, a former deputy commander in a special Chechen police unit, was charged Sunday with the brazen murder of Kremlin critic Nemstov alongside Anzor Gubashev who worked for a private security company in Moscow. They, along with three other suspects, were remanded into custody.
But Babushkin said Dadayev claimed he had made the confession under duress after being arrested in the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia last week, alleging that he spent two days manacled and with a sack over his head.
The suspect said he had eventually admitted to the killing to secure the release of an ex-colleague, Ruslan Yusupov, who was detained alongside him.
The slaying of Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who became an outspoken foe of President Vladimir Putin, just yards from the Kremlin was the highest-profile killing of an opposition leader during Putin's fifteen years in charge.
The killing sent shivers through an opposition that accuses Putin of steadily suppressing dissent, and accused the Kremlin of being behind the murder of one of its last outspoken critics.
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