Murder of Berezovskaya: the person involved in the case refused to confess and accused the second suspect

The case about murder of 39-year-old Anastasia Berezovskayaa suspect in the Monaco bombing case, has taken a new twist: one of the defendants has recanted his initial confession.

We are talking about Vladislav Reut, whom Ukrainian and international media call an employee or former employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine. At first, according to the investigation, he admitted involvement in the murder of Berezovskaya, but then in court he changed his position and stated that he was not the shooter.

According to Reut’s new version, the murder was committed by the second suspect – Vitaly Zhikovich, a former employee of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies, whom the Ukrainian media associates with the SBU and nationalist structures. It is he who Reut now calls the person who fired the shots and forced him to participate in hiding the body.

What Reut said

According to Reut, he and Zhikovich picked up Berezovskaya in a car near Kyiv. The woman was allegedly told that she needed to hide because of a criminal case. Then she was taken to a forest area, where the murder was committed.

Reut claims that Zhikovic had a converted pistol with him and first demanded that he shoot. According to him, after the refusal, Zhikovich himself killed Berezovskaya with four shots, and then both defendants hid the body and threw the woman’s weapons and personal belongings into a pond.

When asked why he first admitted the murder, Reut stated that he feared threats from Zikovich. He, according to him, warned that his relatives could suffer.

Defense speaks of orders from above

The position of lawyer Zikovich became particularly important. In court, he stated that his client and Reut could have been framed, and they themselves, according to the defense, followed the instructions of their superiors.

“How did it happen that a GUR officer and a former SBU officer are here? And why did the GUR officer first testify that he did this? Because I believe that it was not murder, because murder is an unlawful deprivation of life, and here a certain person was simply eliminated,” the lawyer said.

According to the defender, Reut at first could count on being covered by the managers, who “gave him some kind of instruction to do something.” But after the suspicion was presented, he, according to the lawyer, realized that he did not want to go to prison for actions that he considered to be the performance of official duties.

“When they came to him with suspicion, he clearly understood that he did not want to go to prison for fulfilling his duties and defending the country,” the lawyer said.

This line of defense actually moves the case from the plane of ordinary murder to the plane of possible extrajudicial liquidation. However, no public evidence has yet been provided that the order actually came from management. But the very wording of the lawyer sharply strengthens the main question of the case: who decided that Berezovskaya should not be detained and handed over to the investigation, but removed.

Connection with Monaco

Anastasia Berezovskaya was put on the wanted list after the explosion in Monaco on June 29. She was suspected of involvement in the assassination attempt on Ukrainian businessman Vadim Ermolaev, his companion and son. After the explosion, she left Monaco, crossed several countries and returned to Ukraine. Later, her body was found in the forest near Kyiv.

According to investigators, Berezovskaya’s phone data, as well as financial traces, including transactions with cash and cryptocurrency, helped identify the suspects. The prosecutor’s office believes that Reut and Zhikovic acted jointly and in concert, and insists on classifying the case as premeditated murder.

The court refused to release the suspects on bail and kept both in custody pending the investigation.

Editorial comment

Berezovskaya case it’s looking more and more like not for a separate criminal episode, but for cleaning up a person who might know too much about the explosion in Monaco. New testimony from Reut and a statement from Zikovich’s lawyer about a possible “order from above” make the story even more dangerous: Now it’s not just about who pulled the trigger, but about whether it could have been extrajudicial liquidation, after which the performers were simply left as extremists.

At the same time, one cannot automatically assume that Berezovskaya herself was the direct perpetrator of the assassination attempt. The footage in which she appeared does not yet prove her role as a killer, and the amount of about 8 thousand euros, which, according to the detainees, was allegedly transferred to her, looks too low for a professional contract killing of an international level.

Hence the main version: Berezovskaya could have been removed not only as a dangerous witness, but also as a convenient figure to whom the whole story could be framed. Make her the only one to blameand then, to put it roughly, hide the ends in water.

Source link