MOSCOW - The Moscow District Military Court has ordered the jury selection in the case of the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov on August 24.
“Jury selection is scheduled for August 24,” court spokesperson Irina Zhirnova told Interfax.
Shamsudin Tsakayev, lawyer of one of the defendants, said earlier that the court upheld the petition of the defense team to have the case heard by a jury, but decided to announce the decision alongside the rulings on other petitions.
Zhirnova said that the court denied the defendants’ representatives the return of the case to the prosecutor’s office for reclassification from the article ‘murder’ to the article ‘assassination attempt of a state or public figure.’
Also, the defense team of one of the defendants, Temirlan Eskerkhanov, was denied the provision of an interpreter from the Russian language to Chechen. His lawyer Anna Byurchieva said that she intends to secure the provision of an interpreter to her client.
“We will appeal against this decision. He understands and speaks Russian, but he does not understand some legal terms, due to which he requested the provision of an interpreter,” she said.
The Moscow District Military Court initiated pre-trial hearings against five defendants in the case of Nemtsov’s murder on July 25.
