Boris Nemtsov

A Russian court handed on July 13 jail terms ranging from 11 to 20 years to five Chechen men for organizing and carrying out the contract killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

A Russian court sentenced a man convicted of murdering opposition leader Boris Nemtsov to 20 years in jail on Thursday and handed terms of between 11 and 19 years to four other men convicted of being his accomplices.

Russia's prosecuting authority has indicted Zaur Dadayev, the person who it believes killed opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in February.

Separately, charges will be pressed against four other people believed to be his accomplices, TASS news agency reports.

Dadayev in March owned up to having committed Nemtsov's murder, but then retracted his confessions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed a possible war between Moscow and Kiev and said that he did not harbour any ambitions of reviving the Russian empire.

These statement were made during the annual televised question and answer session, which was held on Thursday.

The investigation of the murder of opposition Russian politician Boris Nemtsov has contract killing as its main version, TASS reported on Monday.

The news agency quoted an investigator as saying to the Moscow Basmanny District Court in that the search for the organizers and the person who had placed a contract on Nemtsov's life was in progress.

The number of those charged with the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov in end-February now amounts to three, sources say.

Hamzat Bahayev, who was among the five detained in March in relation to the murder, has also been indicted, Interfax reports citing a person "familiar with the situation".

Members of the European Parliament on Wednesday called on Russia to conduct an independent investigation into the killing of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

According to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, opposition parties in Russia "struggle to exist and to have access to mainstream media."

A former Chechen police officer who admitted to taking part in the murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov "likely confessed under torture", a member of the Kremlin's rights council told on March 11.
      

One of the five suspects in the Boris Nemtsov murder case, Zaur Dadayev denied the truthfulness of the confessions he made Sunday.

Dadayev said that he had perjured himself, when admitting to the crime, as reported by the Moskovsky Komsomolets (MK) Tuesday.

"Every time I call [my mother]," Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov said recently, "she gives me a talking-to: 'When will you stop being rude about Putin? He'll kill you.'"