MOSCOW, March 25 (RAPSI) – The Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg will consider extension of detention for history professor Oleg Sokolov accused of killing his postgraduate student Anastasia Yeshchenko on March 27, the United press service of the city’s courts reports.

The hearing will be open. The date of the trial beginning will be set after this hearing, the statement reads,

Investigation into the defendant was completed, the indictment was approved. In addition to the murder, the historian stands charged with ammunition trafficking.

According to investigators, rescuers pulled the 63-year reader out of a local river early on November 9 and hospitalized. Woman’s severed hands and a nonlethal pistol were found in his backpack. Other parts of her body were found in his flat. The man was arrested when left the hospital the next day. He voluntary surrendered.

The victim was identified as the 24-year postgraduate student of the St. Petersburg State University and Sokolov’s partner.

The professor pleaded guilty. He said that he gunned the woman and broke up her body.

Sokolov is a historian and ideologist of reconstruction of Napoleonic period battles. He has been conferred the Legion of Honor, the French national award instituted by Napoleon Bonaparte.