Russian senator Arashukov arrested on murder charges

Moscow’s Basmanny Court has ordered Rauf Arashukov, a senator from Karachay-Cherkessia, remand in custody for two months on charges of ordering two murders and setting up a criminal group, TASS reported.

Investigators’ move to put Rauf Arashukov behind bars was approved by court, the judge said.

The court declined a ten-million bail offered by the senator’s lawyers.

The Russian Investigative Committee has implicated Rauf Arashukov in two murders in 2010. The first murder was that of Aslan Zhukov, deputy chairman of the public youth movement Adyge Khase and the second was for the murder of Fral Shebzukhov, advisor to the head of the Karachay-Circassian Region, Russian Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko told journalists.