28 Jan 2020 20:59

Historian Sokolov who killed postgrad found sane - source

MOSCOW. Jan 28 (Interfax) - Experts found historian Oleg Sokolov, who is charged with murdering a postgraduate student in St. Petersburg, sane, an informed source told Interfax on Tuesday.

"According to the results of the psychological and psychiatric examination, Sokolov was found sane, he understood the consequences of his actions while he was committing his crime," the source said.

Sokolov's lawyer Alexander Pochuyev, in turn, neither confirmed, nor denied this information. "It is a secret of the investigation. I can say that we are not satisfied with some answers and well request additional examinations," Pochuyev told journalists on Wednesday.

In this light, the lawyer said that Sokolov "is a sane person, we actually never doubted that."

"But at the same time, the questions whether he was sane while committing his crime were raised during the examination. We have not received satisfying answers to this question yet," the lawyer said.

If investigators agreed to re-examination, it may take up to two months, he said.

Sokolov's condition is "satisfactory, but he is crestfallen," Pochuyev said.

Sokolov, a former associate professor at St. Petersburg State University, is charged with murdering Anastasia Yeshchenko, a 24-year-old postgraduate student and his girlfriend. Sokolov has pleaded guilty. According to investigators, Yeshchenko was shot and killed with a small-caliber sawed-off gun in the early hours of November 8. Sokolov dismembered the body and discarded some of the body parts in the Moika River.

The Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg ruled on November 11, 2019, to arrest Sokolov.

Sokolov, 63, who has already been dismissed from St. Petersburg State University, was once awarded France's Order of Legion d'Honneur. He is an expert on French military history and the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. He is also a founder of the battle reenactment movement in Russia.