A Russian lawmaker, who represents the North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Rauf Arashukov, was detained inside Russia’s upper chamber of parliament today.
Before the detention of the 32-year-old parliamentary member, the plenary session of the Federation Council had been closed for the media, and the entry to the session hall was blocked by officers of the Russian Federal Guard Service.
The upper house of Russian parliament, Federation Council, considered an application by the Prosecutor General, stripped Arashukov of his immunity and gave consent to his prosecution.
The Russian Investigative Committee has established the involvement of senator for the Karachay-Circassian Region Rauf Arashukov in two murders in 2010, Russian Investigative Committee Spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said.
"The investigators found that member of the Federation Council from the executive authority of the Karachay-Circassian Region Rauf Arashukov was involved in the specified crimes," she said.
After the Federation Council had studied the report submitted by the general prosecutor on January 30, the decision was made to strip Arashukov of immunity as a Federation Council member and give consent to his involvement as a defendant. Petrenko reiterated that these criminal cases are being investigated by the Main Investigative Directorate of the Russian Investigative Committee.
Arashukov has been charged with the murder of Karachay-Cherkessia public youth movement’s deputy chairman Aslan Zhukov, who was shot dead in March 2010 in the regional capital of Cherkessk, as well as the May 2010 murder of the republican president’s advisor Fral Shebzukhov, investigators revealed.
Arashukov was nominated by the local legislature and sent to the Federation Council in 2016 to become the youngest Council member at the age of 31.
