MOSCOW, January 31 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Basmanny District Court will consider a motion lodged by investigators seeking to place Raul Arashukov, the father of senator Rauf Arashukov and CEO of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz, as part of a case on gas embezzlement worth 30 billion rubles ($455 million), the court’s spokesperson Yunona Tsareva has told RAPSI.

Investigators have also demanded detention for director of Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Stavropol Guzer Khashukoyev, CEO of Gazprom Gazoraspredelenie Astrakhan and Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Astrakhan Ruslan Arashukov.

The defendants are suspected of organizing a criminal group and large-scale embezzlement.

On Wednesday, the court put the Federation Council member representing Karachay-Cherkessia Republic Rauf Arashukov in detention for two months. He stands charged with murder, participation in a gang and witness tampering.

According to investigators, the senator was involved in the murder of a Karachay-Cherkessia public youth movement’s deputy chairman Aslan Zhukov and the republican president’s advisor Fral Shebzukhov in 2010.

Moreover, investigators believe that the senator is implicated to natural gas embezzlement from Gazprom company.

He was arrested in the Federation Council on January 30. The upper house of parliament stripped Arashukov of his immunity and gave consent to his prosecution upon an application by the Prosecutor General.

Later, his father was also arrested on suspicion of embezzling natural gas worth over 30 billion rubles ($455 million) from Gazprom.