Arashukov son's and father's cases combined with three top-ranking law enforcers' cases

Rauf Arashukov, a former senator from Karachay-Cherkessia, his father Raul Arashukov, and former heads of the Centre for Combating Extremism (CCE, also known as Centre "E") and the Investigating Department for Karachay-Cherkessia of the Investigating Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) became involved as defendants in a common criminal case, the defence reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Rauf Arashukov and his father Raul Arashukov, the adviser to the director of the "Gazprom Mezhregiongaz", have been in custody since late January of 2019.

According to investigators, Raul Arashukov ordered his son to organize the murders of Aslan Zhukov and Fral Shebzukhov, while Rauf Arashukov, in turn, instructed top-ranking law enforcers Kazbek Bulatov, Timur Betuganov, and investigator Andrei Filippov not to investigate the murder of Aslan Zhukov.

The investigators decided to combine the criminal case instituted against the Arashukov son and father under Article "Creation or participation in an organized criminal community" with similar cases instituted against Kazbek Bulatov, the former acting head of the ICRF's Investigating Department for Karachay-Cherkessia, his subordinate investigator Andrei Filippov, and Timur Betuganov, the chief of the Centre for Combating Extremism (CCE) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of Karachay-Cherkessia, the TASS quoted Anna Stavitskaya, an advocate of Rauf Arashukov, as reporting.

According to Anna Stavitskaya, the charges are unfounded. "For more than a year of the investigation, the investigators did not succeed in gathering convincing evidence of the Rauf Arashukov's participation in the criminal community," Anna Stavitskaya stated.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on April 28, 2020 at 05:17 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.