Man held for ordering murder of Russian lawmaker

Police in Russia have detained a man suspected of ordering the murder of a lawmaker from the ruling United Russia party.

Businessman Sergei Krasovsky was arrested in the Krasnodar region resort of Anapa.

Another eight people were detained earlier in connection with the death of Mikhail Pakhomov, 36, a legislator in central Russia’s Lipetsk city parliament.

Pakhmov’s body was found stuffed into a cement barrel in Moscow region.

Investigators said they believed Pakhomov, a party member since 2003, had been murdered over unpaid debts.

Yevgeny Kharitonov, 40, a former Moscow region housing utilities official, is also suspected of ordering Pakhomov’s murder.

He was arrested on board a flight from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport to Krasnodar.

Kharitonov has so far refused to answer questions posed by investigators and insists on his innocence. He is facing a series of crime scene re-enactment experiments and medical examination.

–IANS/RIA Novosti

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