MOSCOW, March 25 (RAPSI) – Russian investigators believe that the murder of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was a contract killing, RIA Novosti reported on Wednesday, citing Ivan Gerasimov, the lawyer for Zaur Dadayev, one of the suspects in the murder.

Five men were arrested on suspicion of the murder of Nemtsov, including Zaur Dadayev, Anzor Gubashev, Shadid Gubashev, Khamzat Bakhayev, Tamerlan Eskerkhanov.

As previously reported, Dadayev pleaded guilty.

“The suspects have been charged with contract murder. They do not stand accused of murder motivated by religious hatred,” Gerasimov said.

He did not say if the charges mention the price allegedly paid for murdering Nemtsov.

Nemtsov, co-chair of the Republican Party of Russia – People’s Freedom Party (RPR-PARNAS) and former first deputy prime minister in the Yeltsin government, was fatally shot as he walked home with a girlfriend in central Moscow late on the night of February 27.

He joined the opposition in the 2000s.

Investigators are considering several motives for Nemtsov’s murder, including murder by contract. Another version includes an extremist Islamic connection, because Nemtsov reportedly received threats in connection with his stance on the shooting of journalists at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.