Moscow, Sep 1 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russian police have arrested a man suspected of murdering two women whose bodies were found beneath a scrawled message, demanding the release of three jailed members of the anti-Putin punk group Pussy Riot.
According to investigators, the two victims — a 76-year-old and her 38-year-old daughter — were found in their apartment Wednesday. And, the slogan written on a wall is thought to have been daubed in the victims’ blood.
Kazan university teacher Igor Danilevsky, 38, was held Thursday and confessed to carrying out the double murder, police said. He was an acquaintance of the younger of the victims and was arrested in Russia’s Volga city of Kazan.
Investigators said the suspected killer had written the words to throw police off his trail.
Supporters of the group had speculated that the murders and the accompanying slogan may have been an attempt to discredit the group.
The Pussy Riot trio were jailed for two years each over a protest in Moscow’s largest cathedral against the Orthodox Church’s support for Vladimir Putin ahead of this March’s presidential polls. The trial divided Russian society and sparked a wave of protests in support of the group.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
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