The lawyer of a noted Russian historian who confessed to killing and dismembering his girlfriend has filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee over a video of his client's apparent attempt to commit suicide, which was leaked on the Internet.
Aleksandr Pochuyev told reporters on November 21 that he had officially asked the Investigative Committee's chief, Aleksandr Bastrykin, to look into the distribution of the video and other materials of the case on the Internet and media before the trial of his client, Oleg Sokolov.
On November 21, a video appeared on the Internet showing Sokolov with police officers and other unknown individuals in the historian's apartment. In the video, Sokolov is shown trying to get something from a cabinet and police officers preventing him from doing so.
A police officer later asks other officers if they checked Sokolov's body and says to the historian: "I hope you won't repeat doing what you tried to do now."
Earlier reports said that Sokolov tried to commit suicide by stabbing himself with a dagger on November 15 when he was brought to his apartment, which is a crime scene, as part of an investigation into the grisly murder.
The 63-year-old historian, who was once awarded France’s Order of Legion d'Honneur for his research into military leader Napoleon Bonaparte, was detained on November 9 after being pulled out of the Moika River with a backpack containing the severed body parts of a young woman.
Investigators later found the woman's head in his apartment.
On November 11, Sokolov admitted in court that he killed and dismembered his former student and lover who was a 24-year-old postgraduate student.
The court has ordered that Sokolov be held in pretrial detention for two months while the investigation is carried out.
