MOSCOW, September 6 - RAPSI. Aslan Cherkesov, who has been charged with murdering football fan Yegor Sviridov, illegally obtained a license to carry a weapon, Interior Ministry investigator Eldar Ivanov said during a hearing at the Moscow City Court today.

According to Ivanov, he discovered that police had violated the federal law and an Interior Ministry order when granting the suspect the license.
The license also contains the wrong weapon number.

According to the inspection documents read by prosecutor Maria Semenenko, the license was granted to Cherkasov on the day of his application. It was also recorded that the request was sent to a local police inspector in Nalchik for permission to grant the license. Meanwhile, the license was illegally granted to Cherkasov as no reply was provided to the request.

Sviridov was shot dead on the night of December 6, 2010 in the center of Moscow. The murder sparked a public outcry. Moscow youth were furious with a later police decision to release several suspects. The incident caused mass riots in the central Moscow in late December.