A former Chechen police officer who admitted taking part in the murder of Russian opposition activist Boris Nemtsov "likely confessed under torture", a member of the Kremlin's human rights council says.
Zaur Dadayev allegedly confessed and was charged with murder but has now insisted to the council's Andrei Babushkin that he is "innocent" and only made the admission under duress.
"There are reasons that lead us to believe Zaur Dadayev confessed under torture," Babushkin told AFP after a visit to the suspect's Moscow prison cell on Tuesday.
"We cannot confirm that he was tortured as we are not investigators but we did find numerous wounds on his body," Babushkin said.
The February 27 shooting of Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister who became an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, near the Kremlin was the highest profile killing of an opposition leader during Putin's 15 years in charge.
Dadayev, a former deputy commander in a special Chechen police unit, was charged by a Moscow court on Sunday with the murder alongside Anzor Gubashev, who worked for a private security company.
Babushkin said Dadayev claimed he spent two days manacled and with a sack over his head.
The suspect said he had eventually admitted to the killing to secure the release of an ex-colleague, Ruslan Yusupov, who was detained alongside him.
"I thought that I would be brought to Moscow and would be able to tell the court the full truth. That I am innocent," Dadayev reportedly said.
Russia's powerful investigative committee condemned Babushkin's statement as breaking the law and said he and a colleague who visited Dadayev would be questioned over possible "interference in a criminal case".
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