MOSCOW, March 11 (RAPSI) – Zaur Dadayev and brothers Anzor and Shadid Gubashev, who were detained on suspicion of murdering opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on February 27, have pleaded not guilty, head of the Public Oversight Commission Anton Tsvetkov told journalists on Wednesday.

On March 8, the Basmanny District Court ruled to arrest the five suspects in the case: Zaur Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev until April 28, Shagid Gubashev until May 7, and Khamzat Bakhayev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov until May 8.

Eskerkhanov, Bakhayev and Shadid Gubashev are suspected under a Criminal Code article on premeditated murder committed by a group of persons for mercenary reasons or by contract or compounded by brigandage, extortion and banditry, as well as under an article on the premeditated illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or possession of weapons or their basic elements and munitions by a group of persons.

Dadayev and Anzor Gubashev have been charged with these crimes, which carry penalties ranging from eight to 20 years in prison or a life sentence.

Boris Nemtsov, co-chair of the Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS) and former first deputy prime minister in the Yeltsin administration, was fatally shot as he walked home with his Ukrainian girlfriend, Anna Durytska, in central Moscow late at night on February 27.

After questioning by police, Durytska was allowed to return to Ukraine. She promised to cooperate with the authorities and to answer the investigators’ summons.