MOSCOW, JANUARY 26, RIA NOVOSTI - Preliminary investigation on the criminal case of Alexei Pichugin, security chief of the controversial petroleum company Yukos, is over, the federal Prosecutor General's PR report in a statement circulated today.
Pichugin is charged with murder masterminding, a murder attempt, and murder threats. Alexei Peshkun is suspected of complicity. Both are in custody.
Alexei Pichugin, head of Department Four, Yukos economic security service, was detained July 19, 2003. The Prosecutor General's office accuses him of masterminding an attempt on the life of Olga Kostina, November 1998. She was once chief of Moscow mayoral PR, and adviser to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former Yukos Co. president.
Pichugin is also suspected of masterminding the murders of Olga and Sergei Gorin, both residents of Tambov in Central Russia, in 2002, and abortive murder of Sergei Kolesov, former Menatep Co. functionary, in 1998.
