MOSCOW, August 22 (RAPSI) – A member of the notorious “GTA Gang”, who survived after shooting in the Moscow Regional Court, will undergo a psychiatric examination, RAPSI learnt in the court on Tuesday.
Doctors found several injuries of Khazratkhon Dodokhonov’ head when he was under medical treatment after the shooting. For this reason, experts are to decide whether the defendant is mentally fit or not, the court ruled.
A criminal case was opened after shooting that occurred on August 1 in the building of the Moscow Regional Court. Two guards were accompanying five handcuffed members of the notorious “GTA Gang” charged with banditry, murder, robbery and other grave crimes in an elevator inside the court building. One of the defendants attacked a guard and tried to strangle the victim while others managed to obtain weapons. On the third floor of the courtroom defendants encountered officers of the National Guard. Three defendants were killed in the shooting, two were gravely injured and hospitalized. One of the officers was shot in a shoulder and guards received multiple traumas, according to investigation.
On August 1, 2016, nine defendants pleaded partially guilty to the charges. According to investigators, in March 2012, Ibaydullo Suyhanov organized a gang in the Moscow Region. The gang consisted of at least 15 people from Central Asian countries.
Allegedly, the gang members were behaving without raising anyone’s suspicions. They worked as taxi drivers, construction workers, guards, many of them had families.
Prosecutors claim that from 2012 to 2014 the gang committed 15 robberies resulted in the murder of 17 people and attempted murder of another two. Also, the gang members were allegedly behind numerous attacks against automobile drivers. The criminals were installing handmade spikes on the roads, causing drivers to stop, and murdered the victims for their possessions afterward, according to prosecutors.
On Tuesday, the Moscow Regional Court extended the detention of all living defendants for three months.
The gang leader was killed in an armed stand-off with the police. Five other members of the gang left Russia and were put on the international wanted list.
Russian media called the perpetrators of murders in the Moscow Region and M-4 “Don” highway a “GTA gang” as a reference to the popular videogame.