German court convicts Russian in ‘state-ordered’ Berlin park killing
The court sentenced Vadim Krasikov to life imprisonment, concluding that the Russian government had ordered the hit on Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity.
Vadim Krasikov had allegedly posed as a tourist days before the murder, arriving in Paris before travelling to Warsaw.
A German court has found Russian citizen Vadim Krasikov guilty of the August 2019 murder of Zelimkhan Tornike Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen of Georgian nationality, in a central Berlin park, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
"In June 2019 at the latest, state organs of the central government of the Russian Federation took the decision to liquidate Tornike Khangoshvili in Berlin," the judge said on Wednesday.
"Four children lost their father, two siblings their brother," the judge added.
"Some media suggested that Russia or even (Russian president) Vladimir Putin are on trial here," he said.
"That's misleading: only the convict is on the bench. But our task does involve considering the circumstances of the crime."
Khangoshvili, a former Chechen commander, had survived two assassination attempts in Georgia. Following that, he sought asylum in Germany and had spent the past years in the country.
The German court said his crime had been ordered by the Russian government.
Posing as the tourist
Days before the August 2019 killing, the suspect had allegedly posed as a tourist, arriving on the 17th in Paris where he visited sights before travelling to Warsaw.
Photos of his tourist cover were found on a mobile phone in the Polish hotel where he stayed, before heading to Berlin on August 22.
A day later, riding a bicycle in Berlin's Kleiner Tiergarten park, the suspect approached the victim from behind, firing two shots from a Glock 26 pistol equipped with a silencer at the victim, German prosecutors said.
After the victim fell to the ground, the accused fired another shot at his head that killed the Georgian on the spot.
The suspect then got on his bicycle again and fled.
He was later seen throwing a bag into the nearby Spree river from where police divers later recovered the Glock handgun, a wig and a bicycle, according to the prosecutors.
The suspect was arrested after the killing, which took place just minutes away from the chancellery and parliament.
Investigators later found his mobile phone and a return flight ticket for Moscow on August 25 in his hotel room in Warsaw, Spiegel reported.
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