A witness from Ukraine has identified a man from Russia who is accused of killing former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili as the husband of his wife's sister, Vadim K. A DW correspondent has learned this from the courtroom in Berlin on Tuesday, October 26.
The witness, a 55-year-old businessman from Kharkov named Alexander, had already testified in a Berlin court in late July in the Khangoshvili murder case, but then he said he was not sure if he was his relative in front of him.
He avoided answering directly whether he recognized his relative in the defendant, saying then that his relative looked more athletic. He also said that they had only seen each other twice, and that it had been ten years ago.
Three weeks later Alexander told Der Spiegel magazine that he had told a lie in court, allegedly because he feared for his own safety.
He also claimed that he recognized his relative and, moreover, that his conversation with him almost alluded to his personal acquaintance with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As Der Spiegel journalists noted in their article, it is unclear whether someone prepared Alexander to change his testimony and say he knew the defendant.
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, an ethnic Chechen citizen of Georgia, was shot dead in a Berlin park on Aug. 23, 2019. He was wanted by Russia on terrorism charges.
Khangoshvili left for Germany after another assassination attempt in Georgia in 2015.
Hangoshvili's probable assassin was detained in Berlin the same day. He turned out to be a man with a Russian passport named Vadim Sokolov. According to The Insider, "Vadim Sokolov" is actually Vadim Krasikov, associated with the FSB, who was wanted by Russia through Interpol in 2014.