Russian goes on trial on charges of carrying out Kremlin-ordered killing in Berlin

The indictment was read out in court

Credit: MIKA SCHMIDT/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The trial of a Russian man accused of carrying out a Kremlin-ordered assassination on German soil opened in Berlin on Wednesday.

The case is expected to further damage relations between Germany and Russia, which are already strained by the attempted poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The defendant, a 55-year-old Russian, is accused of gunning down Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in broad daylight in a central Berlin park on orders from Moscow last year.

Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old ethnic Chechen from Georgia, fought against Russia in the Chechnya war and had links to Georgian intelligence. 

The accused’s true identity is disputed and the judge said he would address him as “Herr Defendant” throughout the trial.

The trial is being held under heavy security

Credit: Odd Andersen/Pool AFP

According to the indictment read out in court, he was given orders “to liquidate the victim” by “Russian state agencies”. 

He entered Germany on a false passport in the name of Vadim Sokolov but prosecutors allege he is really Vadim Krasikov, a Russian hitman previously wanted for the murder of a businessman in Moscow.

He is accused of approaching the unsuspecting Khangoshvili from behind on a bicycle in Berlin’s Kleiner Tiergarten park.

Prosecutors allege he shot Khangoshvili in the upper body with a Glock handgun fitted with a silencer, then shot him twice in the head after he fell to the ground. He escaped on the bicycle but was later captured.

No pleas are entered in the German legal system and the defendant did not make any statement.

The case is being held under intense security in a secure courtroom, and the defendant is being held in a secret location over concerns about possible interference.

The killing was already being spoken of as “second Skripal case” in Germany before the poisoning of Mr Navalny with Novichok, the same nerve agent used in the failed assassination attempt against Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.