A senator from the ruling party in Russia was arrested on suspicion of having ordered a murder, reported DPA, quoted by BTA.
The Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament in Moscow, voted in favor of removing the immunity of Senator Dmitry Saveliev, a spokesman for the parliament announced yesterday. He was arrested immediately after he left the meeting, according to TASS.
According to the Russian prosecutor's office, in August last year, the high-ranking politician ordered a hired killer to kill a businessman. The plot was uncovered, but for tactical reasons the investigation still claimed that the crime had actually been committed.
"The killing was staged by the security authorities in order to reveal the person who ordered it and the organizers," said a spokesman for the prosecutor's office.
It is claimed that Saveliev paid for the murder, which according to the newspaper "Izvestia" it cost $100,000.
The senator is a 53-year-old former executive director of an oil company, belongs to the "United Russia" party. of President Vladimir Putin. Since 2016, he has represented the Tula region in the Federation Council, and before that he was a member of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.
In recent weeks, there have been several spectacular arrests of high-ranking officials from the Russian elite for alleged corruption. However, an action against a senator on suspicion of murder is unusual.
In the 1990s, many economic conflicts in Russia were settled with contract killings, DPA recalls.