MOSCOW, December 29 – RAPSI, Maria Petrova. A jury found Russian citizen Yury Solovyev guilty of murdering two businessmen in the United States in 2002, the Moscow Region Court spokesperson told the Russian Legal Information Agency on Saturday.

Prior to the hearing, the prosecutor has filed a motion on keeping Solovyev in detention rather than placing him under house arrest. The motion was upheld and after the verdict Solovyev was detained.

He was charged with a number of crimes, including murder, large-scale robbery, fraud and theft.

He confessed to the theft only in his final statement and pleaded not guilty to other charges.

Solovyev was renting an apartment in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, with two businessmen who ran an employment agency. In June 2002, he decided to kill them and take their money. He purchased a Jennings gun and shot the businessmen dead. He stole upwards of $19,000, as well as credit cards,. To conceal the crime, Solovyev sawed their bodies into pieces in the bathroom, packed the remains and threw them into a nearby gully, according to the Investigative Committee.

He also stole $8,760 in money and cigarettes from a gas station where he worked in 2004 and then left the United States.

In June 2004, he was placed on the international wanted list. He was found in Russia in 2009.

All of the materials in the case were transferred from the U.S. Justice Department to the Investigative Committee for Solovyev's prosecution.