MOSCOW
Zaur Dadayev, suspected of killing Russian opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, had resigned from the military unit of the Interior Ministry a short time before the murder, Russian Internal Troops spokesman said.
Zaur Dadayev, of Chechen origin, had handed in a resignation notice on Dec. 23, 2014, to the Russian Internal Troops, connected to the Interior Ministry, according to spokesman Vasiliy Panchenko.
Russian media also reported that the suspect had previously served in a battalion of Chechnya’s Interior Ministry troops. Since 2010, he had been serving as a sergeant in the 46th Brigade of Russia’s Interior Ministry.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov defended the suspect, saying last Sunday that Dadayev was “a true Russian patriot” who had received medals for bravery.
Ramzan Kadyrov also stated that Dadayev was a religious Muslim, who had been disturbed by cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Boris Nemtsov had condemned Charlie Hedbo criticizers in a post he wrote on social media, saying Islam was a "young religion that is currently in its Middle Ages, and there was a long fight ahead to defeat the Islamic inquisition."
According to Russian media, the opposition leader Boris Nemtsov had received many death threats in the past, which he shared with Russian security officials.
He was also one of the organizers of a planned anti-Ukraine war demonstration to be held in Moscow on March 1.
Boris Nemtsov, leading Russian opposition leader and a former deputy prime minister, was shot dead in the Russian capital of Moscow on Feb. 27.
Four other suspects have been detained along with Zaur Dadayev on March 8.
