MOSCOW, August 28 - RAPSI. The Moscow Regional Court will hold preliminary hearings September 3 in the case against Yuri Solovyev, who stands accused of murdering two business partners in the United States ten years ago, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Tuesday.

Investigators believe Solovyev met his victims in the spring of 2001. The entrepreneurs, who were Russian and Uzbek citizens, operated a joint-enterprise that hired personnel for local firms.

Solovyev was renting an apartment with them in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

In June 2002, he decided to kill them for financial profit, according to the investigation. That same month, Solovyev purchased a Jennings pistol and shot his partners dead. He stole upwards of $19,000, as well as their credit cards, the Investigative Committee reported.To conceal his crime, Solovyev dismembered their bodies with a saw in the bathroom. He then packed the corpses into polyethylene packages and threw them into a nearby gully, according to the committee.

Solovyev proceeded to buy jewelry with one of the stolen credit cards. He also stole $8,760 in money and cigarettes from a gas station where he worked in 2004 and then left the United States.

In June 2004, he was placed on the international wanted list. He was found in Russia in 2009. All of the materials in the case were transferred from the US Justice Department to the Investigative Committee for Solovyev's prosecution.

Solovyev has been accused of a number of crimes, including murder, large-scale robbery, fraud and theft.

The preliminary hearings will be held behind closed doors pursuant to the law.