Yakutia completes probe into arson murder by drug addicts

In Yakutsk, the investigation into a murder committed with particular cruelty has been completed. A 22-year-old local resident is accused of setting a person on fire. This was reported on January 23 by the press service of the Investigative Committee of Yakutia, with details provided to 14.RU by sources.

In May of last year, an acquaintance of the owner of one of Yakutsk«s auto repair shops asked him to hand over a motorcycle, but was refused. After a quarrel with him, he persuaded two of his acquaintances to take revenge on the entrepreneur by setting his Toyota Platz car on fire. He knew that it was stored in a repair shop on Petra Alekseyeva Street.

On the night of May 8 to 9, his two acquaintances bought fuel and went to the garage. The instigator himself remained at home.

“Acting according to previously assigned roles, unaware that the victim was inside the car, they poured gasoline on the outside of the car body and also smashed the rear door window with a stone. At that time, the victim, who was on the back seat, began to scream, trying to stop the criminal actions,” according to the website of the republic«s prosecutor»s office.

As sources told 14.RU, the criminals were drug addicts. When they smashed the car window, there was a person inside who was sleeping on the back seat. This happened around two o«clock in the morning. One of the criminals, upon seeing him, immediately fled.

“The other, a 22-year-old accused, doused the man with gasoline, despite all his screams demanding to stop. And then threw a plastic bottle with the remaining gasoline inside the cabin through the broken window and set the asphalt on fire,” a source in law enforcement agencies told 14.RU.

The flames quickly spread to the car, and the man suffered thermal burns all over his body. Doctors in the burn unit fought for his life for almost two months, but in July he died.

The crime was solved by employees of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Yakutia, and the case was initiated in the first department for investigating particularly important cases of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Yakutia. All three suspects are in custody.

The instigator of the crime is charged with Part 3 of Article 33 and Part 2 of Article 167 — organization of a crime and intentional destruction of someone else«s property by arson. The second one, who fled, faces Article 2, Part 167. And the 22-year-old accused of murder is charged with Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — murder committed with particular cruelty, with the aim of facilitating another crime, as well as Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For the totality of crimes, he faces life imprisonment.