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Russia reopens Tsar Nicholas family murder case Russia exhumes bones of murdered Tsar Nicholas and wife
(about 2 hours later)
Russian investigators have reopened a notorious murder case dating back to 1918 - that of the last tsar and his family, the Romanovs. Russian investigators have exhumed the remains of the last tsar and his wife, as they re-examine the 1918 murder of the imperial family.
The bones of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, reburied in a St Petersburg cathedral, will be re-examined. Samples were taken from Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, and from the bloodstained uniform of Alexander II, Nicholas's grandfather, killed in 1881.
Revolutionary Bolsheviks killed the family in a cellar in the Urals region. The murdered Romanov family members are buried at a St Petersburg cathedral.
The Investigative Committee, a state body, says new checks are needed in order to verify the remains of four other Romanov family members. Revolutionary Bolsheviks killed the family in a cellar. But the Orthodox Church wants the remains checked again.
The Russian Orthodox Church requested the new investigation in July - despite the fact that the murder case had been closed in 1998. The long-running murder case had been closed in 1998, after DNA tests authenticated the Romanov remains found in a mass grave in the Urals in 1991.
Some church members remain unconvinced that the buried remains are those of the tsar and his wife. The Romanovs were ousted from power and exiled in 1917, shortly before the communist Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government. Tsar Nicholas II, Alexandra, their four daughters - grand duchesses Anastasia, Maria, Olga and Tatiana - their son the Tsarevich Alexei and four royal staff members were murdered at a remote house in Yekaterinburg in 1918.
Mass grave Despite DNA tests, some Russian Orthodox Church members were still sceptical, because the remains of two - Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria - were only found in 2007, at a different spot in the Urals.
Tsar Nicholas II, his wife the Tsarina Alexandra, their four daughters - grand duchesses Anastasia, Maria, Olga and Tatiana - their son, the Tsarevich Alexei and four royal staff members were murdered at a remote house in Yekaterinburg in 1918. The Investigative Committee, a state body, says new checks are needed in order to authenticate the remains of those two.
The remains of nine victims were found in a mass grave in 1993. But the remains of Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchess Maria were found in 2007 at a different spot. DNA tests identified them as the murdered royals. Russia plans to rebury Alexei and Maria alongside the rest of the family in St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral. But for that to happen the Church wants to be certain about the remains.
The royal couple and three daughters were formally reburied at St Petersburg's Peter and Paul Cathedral on 17 July 1998 - the 80th anniversary of the murder. They were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000. Treated as saints
The new investigation is focusing on the remains of four Romanovs. They are: Tsarevich Alexei, Grand Duchess Maria - both kept at the Russian State Archive - Alexandra's sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, and Nicholas's grandfather, former Tsar Alexander II, who was assassinated in 1881. The royal couple and three daughters were formally reburied at on 17 July 1998 - the 80th anniversary of the murder. They were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
Only now can investigators get access to Elizabeth's remains, which are in Jerusalem. Alexei and Maria are also likely to be canonised before the 100th anniversary in 2018. Their remains are currently kept at the Russian State Archives.
Investigators want to examine spots of blood on the greatcoat of Alexander II. He was killed by a bomb thrown by a "People's Will" revolutionary, and buried in his military uniform in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The new investigation also involves taking samples from Alexandra's sister the Grand Duchess Elizabeth Fyodorovna, buried in Jerusalem. Only now can Russian investigators get access to those remains.
Documents from the so-called "White Guards Investigation" concerning the 1918 murder will also be studied. They came to light in the past four years. The Romanovs were ousted from power and exiled in 1917, shortly before the communist Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government.
Documents from the so-called "White Guards Investigation" concerning the family's 1918 murder will also be studied. They came to light in the past four years.
Tsar Alexander II was killed by a bomb thrown by a "People's Will" revolutionary in 1881, and buried in his military uniform in the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
A lawyer for Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, a descendant of the murdered Romanovs, said she supported the new investigation.
Quoted by Russia's Tass news agency, lawyer German Lukyanov said "not all aspects of the imperial family's murder were explained in the case, and not all the Russian Orthodox Church's questions were answered fully and clearly".
"The grand duchess hopes that the examination of the Yekaterinburg remains will be scientific... The truth must be established in this case, with an answer to the main question: whose are these remains?"