Zaur Dadaev: Confession to Nemtsov’s murder recorded several times

Zaur Dadaev, a former fighter in the Chechen battalion Sever accused of murdering oppositionist politician Boris Nemtsov, told the court how his confession was recorded. According to Dadaev, the testimony was given on March 8, 2015 (a week following the murder) and had to be recorded “three to four times,” because Dadaev could not remember the words of investigator Igor Krasnov, who was conducting the interrogation.

Dadaev stressed that he repeated the testimony dictated to him by Krasnov. Earlier, the accused repeatedly insisted that he would refuse to confess to anything in the period immediately following his arrest.

Dadaev’s interrogation was published by newspaper Kommersant on April 18, on the eve before the testimony was introduced as evidence at the trial on Nemtsov’s murder taking place at the Moscow District Military Court. In the video, Dadaev explains that he decided to kill Nemtsov because of the politician’s statements in support of satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, which had published cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

At the trial, Dadaev said that he did not know Nemtsov at all. Moreover, he confused him with politician Boris Berezovsky. Dadaev said that he spent the day of the murder at home, because he was ill.

Newspaper Novaya Gazeta published a video of the interrogation of Anzor Gubashev – another defendant in the Nemtsov case. In the video, Gubashev relates how Nemtsov’s murder was planned.