Russian police arrest Azeri man over murder that sparked rioting

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/15/russian-police-arrest-azeri-man-murder-rioting

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Russian special police forces have arrested a 30-year-old Azeri man identified as the suspect in the murder of an ethnic Russian that ignited the capital's worst nationalist rioting in three years.

Orkhan Zeinalov was apprehended in Kolomna, about 60 miles (100km) from the spot in southern Moscow where he is alleged to have fatally stabbed Egor Shcherbakov, 25, on Thursday. The murder was blamed on a migrant from the Caucasus region thought to be working in a local vegetable warehouse which was ransacked amid nationalist rioting over the weekend.

The details of Zeinalov's arrest are still unclear and he is being flown back to Moscow on a helicopter. He was identified on Tuesday as a migrant worker from Azerbaijan who had lived in Russia for more than 10 years.

In an interview with the LifeNews news portal, Zeinalov's landlord, Alexei Pronkin, said he had last seen the suspect on Monday night when he left the apartment soon after they had joked together that he had a resemblance to the murder suspect.

Three of Sunday's rioters will face criminal proceedings out of the 380 who were arrested amid nationalist unrest. The following day police rounded up more than a thousand migrant workers at the warehouse. Police are searching the premises for the murder weapon.

The unrest and police reaction has sent a chill through communities of migrants, many of whom, as Muslims, took part in Tuesday's Eid al-Adha holiday, known as Kurban Bayram in the former Soviet Union. Russian authorities beefed up security at the mosques.

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