Igor Guzhin was brought to Russia from Thailand, accompanied by a special escort, who is accused of organizing the murder of his acquaintance because of the redistribution of spheres of influence in the funeral services market in Samara. According to investigators, in 2017, the accused turned to Khusnidin Nuridinov, who hired two executors to kill 45-year-old Vladimir Popov. One of them shot the victim in the street with a pistol. Khusnidin Nuridinov was convicted in 2020. The second alleged organizer of the murder, Andrei Maklaev, is still on the wanted list.
Igor Guzhin was extradited to Russia from Thailand, accompanied by employees of the NCB Interpol of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, who is accused of organizing the murder of his acquaintance, 45-year-old Vladimir Popov, in Samara (part 3 of article 33, paragraphs “g”, “z ” Part 2 of article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.) This is reported by “MVD Media”.
“Today, at the airport in Bangkok, the accused was handed over to representatives of Russian law enforcement agencies for delivery to Moscow,” the statement said the official representative of the Russian Interior Ministry, Irina Volk.
Law enforcers found that earlier Igor Guzhin and his colleague Andrey Maklaev, who represented the interests of the MUE “Special Combine of Funeral Services”, had a number of conflicts with their acquaintance, the athlete Vladimir Popov, known as the Yakuza. The latter spoke on behalf of Dom Angelov LLC, which competed with MUP, and accused the opponent of embezzling money when doing business together.
The investigation believes that after a skirmish with Vladimir Popov at the Rubizhnoye cemetery in April 2017, Igor Guzhin decided to kill the athlete. Then for 1 million rubles. he agreed on this with Khusnidin Nuridinov, nicknamed “Khan”.
He, in turn, hired two performers and gave them information about the place of residence and the car of Vladimir Popov.
They also received a VAZ car and a pistol with 9 mm cartridges from Khusnidin Nuridinov to commit the murder. After that, on May 9, 2017, no later than 15:25, the alleged criminals arrived at the specified address. One of them got out of the car and fired at least four times at Vladimir Popov, who was in the yard at the time.
The bullets hit the neck, torso and limbs. The victim was hospitalized. Six months later, in November, he died in hospital from his wounds.
The two perpetrators fled the scene. On the evening of the day of the murder, Khusnidin Nuridinov paid a motorist friend who took the alleged perpetrators in a Lada Priora car to Kazakhstan. They haven’t been found yet. At the same time, law enforcement officers were able to establish the involvement in the crime of Khusnidin Nuridinov, Igor Guzhin and Andrey Maklaev. They were detained and criminal cases were opened against them.
The trial took place in 2018 in the Samara Regional Court with the participation of jurors. In December of the same year, Igor Guzhin and Andrei Maklaev were acquitted: the lawyers were able to prove that the defendants were not involved in the crime. They were given the right to rehabilitation. And Khusnidin Nuridinov was convicted for organizing a murder by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, for hire and illegal acquisition, storage and carrying of firearms and ammunition (part 1 of article 222; part 3 of article 33, subclause “g” , “h” part 2 article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The court sentenced him to 17 years in prison in a strict regime colony with restriction of freedom for a year. Also, non-pecuniary damage in the total amount of 3 million rubles was recovered from Khusnidin Nuridinov in favor of the injured party.
After that, all parties to the process challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, in September 2019 it overturned the decision of the Samara Regional Court and sent the case for a new trial.
Khusnidin Nuridinov was found guilty of the same crimes and re-sent to a strict regime colony for 17 years, but the total amount of non-pecuniary damage in favor of the injured party was reduced to 2 million rubles. And Igor Guzhin and Andrei Maklaev disappeared at the stage of the trial and were put on the international wanted list. The media, citing law enforcement officers, suggested that they died. However, Igor Guzhin was detained in September last year on the territory of the Kingdom of Thailand. Russia managed to negotiate with Thailand on the extradition of the accused. The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation reports that this happened for the first time in the history of relations between states in the field of criminal justice.
Andrei Maklaev has not yet been found. “He is officially listed as missing. In this regard, a criminal case was initiated under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (”Murder”),” Kommersant was told in the prosecutor’s office of the Samara region.
As for Khusnidin Nuridinov, he tried at least twice to challenge his verdict. In August 2020, the Fourth Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction excluded from qualification under Part 1 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, an indication of the carrying of firearms and ammunition. In May 2021, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the decisions of lower instances.