A guilty verdict was unanimously returned in the high-profile case.

Yesterday evening, the jury of the Moscow City Court delivered a verdict in the case of the murder of an employee of the Rossiya 2 TV channel, Spartak fan 22-year-old Yuri Volkov, in a fight, committed in Moscow last summer. Both defendants - natives of Chechnya Akhmedpasha Aidaev and Bekhan Ibragimov - were unanimously found guilty. The first is for murder, the second is for stabbing a fan’s friends. Lawyers who insisted on the innocence of their clients have already announced that they will appeal the verdict.

The jury retired to reach its verdict at 1:00 p.m. and left the deliberation room at 4:40 p.m. After which the court secretary invited the trial participants into the courtroom. The case was heard behind closed doors, and the public was not allowed into the courtroom.

As it turned out, the jury answered the court’s questions so accurately that after reading the answers, the presiding judge immediately declared that “the verdict is clear” and asked the foreman of the panel to announce it. The procedure itself took no more than 20 minutes.

As Aidaev’s lawyer Aslan Artsuev and Ibragimov’s defense attorney Abusupyan Gaytaev said, the jury unanimously found Akhmedpasha Aidaev guilty of the murder of Yuri Volkov, and Bekkhan Ibragimov of beatings and causing harm to the health of the victims. At the same time, both defendants, according to the jury, do not deserve leniency.

Let us recall that, according to the prosecution, on the night of July 10, 2010, at approximately 01:10, Aidaev and Ibragimov “out of hooligan motives” saw six young people near the house N2 on Chistoprudny Boulevard, next to the Chistye Prudy metro station Muscovites, decided to provoke them into a fight (Magomed Suleymanov, who was also with the instigators, according to investigators, did not support this idea and was a witness in the case). Aidaev, passing by young people, the case file says, deliberately touched one of them, Maxim Domnitsky, with his shoulder. In response, he pushed Akhmedpasha Aidaev, for which he immediately received a blow to the face. At the same time, Ibragimov took out a knife and wounded two other young people with it. After which, the prosecution believes, Aidaev also pulled out a knife and dealt a fatal blow to the assistant director of the Rossiya 2 TV channel and active Spartak fan Yuri Volkov in the heart area. Then Aidaev, Ibragimov and Suleymanov tried to escape, but were detained by patrol policemen.

The defendants' lawyers insisted on a different version of events. According to them, when Aidaev, Ibragimov and Suleymanov passed by “tipsy fans,” Maxim Domnitsky insulted Aidaev, and when he stopped, he pushed him. Only after this, the defense claims, Aidaev hit the offender, which resulted in a general fight. Then, the lawyers say, Magomed Suleymanov, who was standing at a distance, suddenly pulled out a knife and attacked the fans with it. They shouted: “Knife!” And Suleymanov, according to the defense, shouted to his fellow countrymen in Chechen: “Follow me!”, and rushed towards Sretensky Boulevard. Akhmedpasha Aidaev and Bekhan Ibragimov ran after him, but were soon detained by police.

Lawyers for the accused claim that after his arrest, Magomed Suleymanov allegedly sincerely confessed to what he had done and even showed the police exactly where he threw away the knife, which later appeared in the case as the murder weapon. Aidaev's mother Abidat Aidaeva and the defendants' lawyers believe that Suleymanov was allegedly cleared away by his relatives, and the charges were brought against his friends. Lawyers, in particular, told Kommersant that the court refused to question two witnesses to whom Suleymanov allegedly confessed that it was he who killed Yuri Volkov.

In turn, the victims in the case claim that the version of Magomed Suleymanov’s involvement in the murder is untenable, since they themselves saw who exactly used the knives.

Lawyers Artsuev and Gaytaev said yesterday that they would appeal the upcoming verdict, and “if necessary,” they would file a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.

Alexey Sokovnin

The jury is clear about the murder of a fan