Russian Law Enforcement Confirms Suicide Of Neo-Nazi Tesak

Faizan Hashmi Published September 16, 2020 | 07:22 PM

The law enforcement authorities of the Chelyabinsk region on Wednesday confirmed the suicide of neo-Nazi Maksim Martsinkevich, better known as Tesak (Machete).

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2020) The law enforcement authorities of the Chelyabinsk region on Wednesday confirmed the suicide of neo-Nazi Maksim Martsinkevich, better known as Tesak (Machete).

Earlier in the day, a source in the law enforcement told Sputnik that Tesak committed suicide while in prison.

He was found dead around 8.25 a.m. (03:25 GMT) in a pre-trial detention center in the Chelyabinsk region, from where he was due to be transferred to Moscow.

Tesak left a suicide note, asking to give his private diary and a book on communism to his wife, and apologized to the prison staff.

"In his suicide note, Martsinkevich apologizes to the administration of the Detention Center 3 for the inconveniences, asks to send the book and his diary to his wife," a source in the region's law enforcement agencies told Sputnik.

One of Martsinktevich's lawyers, Vladimir Krasnov, said later in the day that his client was forced to confess in a new criminal case.

At the same time, another lawyer, who visited Tesak in Krasnoyarsk, confirmed to Sputnik that her client was offered to sign some papers in the absence of his defense.

"The last time I personally spoke with him was at the end of July via video conferencing, it was a Moscow City Court hearing. Even then we indirectly knew that he was pressured to confess something he did not do. We told him not to worry, told him that we would be able to prove that he was not involved in the crime. Maksim was crushed," a source told Sputnik.

According to Krasnov, his colleagues personally saw Martsinktevich confess.

Martsinkevich, 36, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault on people he believed to be drug traffickers. Other defendants in the case also received prison sentences.

The court decision went into force in May 2019. According to investigators, Tesak and his supporters used spray and batons to beat up people in Moscow.