RIA Novosti. Russia
April 28 2006

Suspect in Armenian student killing released from custody
17:27 | 28/ 04/ 2006

MOSCOW, April 28 (RIA Novosti) – A high school student detained in
connection with the killing of an Armenian teenager in Moscow last
weekend has been released from custody, a lawyer for the student’s
family said.

Sixteen-year-old Denis Kulagin had been detained for 72 hours in
connection with the fatal stabbing of Vagan Abramyants, a 17-year-old
student at a Moscow manager training institute, at Pushkinskaya metro
station in downtown Moscow on April 22.

But his attorney Simon Tsaturyan said, “Prosecutors found no grounds
to charge [the suspect], so he was released.”

However, he added the status of his client remained unclear, as
investigators had to establish whether he was a witness or suspect.
The lawyer, though, said the dropping of charges showed that
prosecutors were inclined to probe further into a race-hate version.

The other version under consideration was that a row had broken out
between the two young men over a girlfriend.

“Our version that the crime was racially motivated has taken the
upper hand,” the lawyer said, adding that prosecutors were pursuing
another line that a group of young men had carried out the fatal
attack.

“Whether Kulagin was a suspect or an eyewitness is a question that
investigation will have to answer,” the lawyer said.