“Eight to twenty years in prison.” Lawyer – about the murder of MMA fighter Magomed Mutaev

Late in the evening of January 31, 21-year-old MMA fighter Magomed Mutaev (fighting under the name Magomedrasul) was shot and killed in Makhachkala. Very quickly, the main suspect was known. It turned out to be 18-year-old Nadyrkhan Kadirkhanov (also called Nadirkhan), with whom Mutaev had a long conflict. Other comments on the Internet offered several versions at once. According to one of them, during the conflict the killer insulted the father of the murdered man in absentia, after which Mutaev and his friends grabbed Kadirkhanov, beat and humiliated him. The shooting was revenge for the humiliation. According to various versions, Mutaev either put out a cigarette on the future killer, or urinated, or threatened to carve an obscene word on his back.

Later, the sister of the murdered man wrote on her page on social networks that Kadirkhanov led a dissolute lifestyle and assaulted the sister of Mutaev’s friend, which also led to a conflict. One of Mutaev’s relatives, in a conversation with a correspondent, refused to comment, clarifying that now even the fighter’s family does not have a complete idea of ​​what happened.

It is also known that both practiced freestyle wrestling (Mutaev competed in several heavier weight classes) and that both were photographed with weapons. During his first MMA fight (two and a half months before the tragedy), Magomed Mutaev promised to “kill” his opponent and was remembered as “a noisy fighter from Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov’s gym.” Moreover, the deceased was not a student of Khabib’s father, as the media write: Mutaev has long participated in freestyle wrestling competitions and relatively recently switched to MMA. Mutaev’s coach was Magomed Bagandov, known for his work with Islam Makhachev.

On February 3, the suspect in Kadirkhanov’s murder was arrested, and on February 5 the court chose a preventive measure for the accused in the form of two months’ detention. Lawyer Alexandre Karabanov explains how the investigation could evolve.

– What is your opinion on this issue, if you compose it only from the news you read?

—Crimes in this category, if solved promptly and the bad guy arrested, generally do not pose problems for the investigation of evidence. And as a rule, in such crimes, committed either for motives of hooliganism or for revenge, the criminal leaves numerous traces, which facilitates the work of the investigation. I think everything will be proven here, the case will go to court. This article provides for a sentence of eight to twenty years in prison.

— If the killer has already been beaten and humiliated, as they say in the telegram channels, will it be possible to prove the state of passion?

— The emotional state is established during a psychological examination. As a general rule, crimes of passion are committed from strong emotions experienced and are committed in the moment; According to established practice, insults still do not lead to such a reaction, I would exclude here with a high degree of probability that an affect is established.

– But here we are talking about a very terrible insult.

– Yes, but affect is most often an explosion of momentary violence that occurs here and now. And here you can see obvious preparations for a crime. He chose a location, he followed the person, he chose a weapon and protected himself as much as possible by shooting in the back – that speaks of calculation. I think affect is excluded here: this is revenge in its purest form – a person was insulted, he could not forgive, therefore the crime was committed in cold blood.

— Can the age of 18 of a criminal constitute a mitigating circumstance?

— 18 years is the age of full criminal responsibility. Additionally, for serious crimes like murder, responsibility begins at age 14. If a person has been insulted or humiliated, this may be seen by the court as a mitigating circumstance. And of course the court will take into account whether the person has repented or not. Perhaps the accused will even want to publicly apologize to loved ones and contribute financially to the funeral. Such elements are taken into account by the court, since the meaning of the punishment is the restoration of social justice and the correction of the convicted person. The court will consider the desire to help the family a very serious step towards the fact that a person realizes that he was wrong and is ready to take the path of correction.

And if the court takes into account all the arguments of the defense, then you can get even less than the bar – about eight years. And on parole, you can get out in five hours. It turns out that he can serve a sentence of five to 15 years, and this is the margin during which the defense must work, establish the facts and contact the accused.

— If they prove that Mutaev and his friends caused bodily harm to Kadirkhanov, could there be criminal proceedings, including charges against Mutaev’s friends who participated in this matter?

– There is such a practice. If you recall, there was recently a high-profile case against the Khachaturian sisters. And there, already during the investigation, the defense was able to obtain a criminal case against a person who essentially died for rape. And the court took this into account. And here the investigator is obliged to deal with this (possible beating and humiliation of Kadirkhanov. – ) and initiate criminal proceedings. If these crimes are proven, it is guaranteed that the sentence will be reduced.

— What if the participation of third parties in the murder was proven? From what I understand, this would be a murder committed by a group of people by prior conspiracy.

— It will still be the second part of article 105, but another nuance will be added. This sign will aggravate the sentence.

— We are almost 100% talking about article 105 (murder). What is the shortest possible sentence, given everything we currently know?

— If we take into account that his actions will be qualified in the second part, the sentence varies from 8 to 20 years. I guess if the bullying is proven, the judge may give him less than the minimum – around five years. And then it will be possible to get out on parole in 3-3.5 years. In addition, the time spent in a pre-trial detention center is taken into account in the sanction. But this will only be possible if all the legal facts are correctly gathered and the defense can prove everything.

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