OREANDA-NEWS. A witness from Ukraine at a court hearing in Berlin on Tuesday, October 26, identified a Russian accused of murdering former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili as the husband of his wife's sister Vadim. He also suggested, without providing actual evidence, that the accused is an employee of the Russian special services with the rank of colonel, a DW correspondent reported from the courtroom.

At the end of July, a witness — a 55-year-old businessman from Kharkiv Alexander — had already testified in a Berlin court in the case of the murder of Khangoshvili, but then he said that he was not sure that his relative was in front of him. He evaded a direct answer to the question whether he recognized his relative in the defendant, saying then that his sister-in-law's husband looked sportier. And they met, according to him, only twice, both times — ten years ago.

Three weeks after that, Alexander said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine that he had told a lie in court - allegedly out of fear for his own safety. He also stated that in fact he identified his relative and, moreover, in a conversation with him, he almost hinted at his personal acquaintance with Russian President Vladimir Putin. As Der Spiegel journalists noted in their article, it is unclear whether someone was preparing Alexander to change his testimony and say that he knows the defendant.

Georgian citizen, ethnic Chechen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was shot dead in Berlin's Maly Tiergarten Park on August 23, 2019. He was put on the wanted list by Russia on charges of terrorism. Khangoshvili left for Germany after another attempt was made on his life in Georgia in 2015.

The alleged murderer of Khangoshvili was detained in Berlin on the same day. It turned out to be a man with a Russian passport in the name of Vadim Sokolov. According to The Insider portal, «Vadim Sokolov» is actually Vadim Krasikov, connected with the FSB structures, whom Russia put on the wanted list through Interpol in 2014. Krasikov denies that this is his real name. He has repeatedly stressed that in reality his name is Sokolov, as it appears in the documents presented to them when entering the EU.