Suspect in case on Mamikhan Umarov's murder in Austria left under arrest

In Austria, a court has extended until August 20 the term of arrest for one of the suspects in a case on the murder of Chechen blogger Mamikhan Umarov, and the second suspect will be kept in prison until January 2021, an official from the Prosecutor's Office reports. Investigators will take into account a video appeal of the blogger's relatives who took the blame for his murder, the police say.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on July 22, a video was made public in which the Mamikhan Umarov's relatives, living in Chechnya, apologized for the statement voiced by the blogger during his lifetime. The men declared themselves guilty of the Mamikhan Umarov's murder.

Today, an official from the Korneuburg Prosecutor's Office has reported that a court in Austria left one of the detainees in a pre-trial detention centre until August 20. For the second suspect, an alleged perpetrator of the murder, "there is no need to expend a stay in the pre-trial detention centre for longer time, because he is already in prison and is serving his sentence for other crimes not related to the murder in Gerasdorf. He will be serving his sentence until January 2021," the RIA "Novosti" quotes the official from the Korneuburg Prosecutor's Office as saying.

On July 21, Johann Baumschlager, the spokesman for the Police Department of the Lower Austria region, announced that Austrian investigators drew attention to the video appeal recorded by the relatives of the victim and would take it into account.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 23, 2020 at 12:48 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.