Suspect in Boris Nemtsov slaying says he was coerced into confessing

Zaur Dadayev, a suspect in the February murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, told a prisoners' rights group that he was forced to confess by investigators.

Dadayev once served as deputy commander of the north interior ministry battalion in Chechnya, and a judge said he confessed to the killing. He was allegedly motivated by anger over what he perceived as anti-Muslim statements by Nemtsov, according to Russia's Rosebalt news agency, citing unidentified law enforcement sources.

However, The Guardian reports, journalist Yeva Merkachyova says Dadayev told her and other members of the monitoring group that he was placed in shackles for two days with a bag over his head, and was told if he confessed, his friend Ruslan Yusupov would be released. "I thought that I would save him, and they would take me to Moscow alive," Dadayev reportedly said. "Otherwise what happened to Shavanov would have happened to me." Beslan Shavanov, another suspect, was killed when police officers tried to apprehend him in the Chechen capital of Grozny over the weekend. Officials say he threw a grenade at officers and then blew himself up with a second grenade.

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