Moscow court to announce verdict in Jesuits murder case

MOSCOW, August 25 (Itar-Tass) - The Moscow City Court on Tuesday will
announce the verdict for Mikhail Orekhov, accused of the murder of a
Jesuit priest in Moscow in October 2008.
The verdict will be handed down on the strength of the verdict of
jurors, who found Orekhov guilty of the murder of Betancourt Victor Ruiz
Stenio, but cleared him of the murder of priest Otto Messmer.
Jurors said the defendant did not deserve leniency.
Earlier, the prosecutor for the state demanded that Orekhov be
sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security penitentiary.
Orekhov, 36, a native of the Tver region, lived in Moscow and was
unemployed. He has a criminal record of thefts, rapes and robberies.
He told the investigators he had killed the first Jesuit because "of
sudden personal dislike," and that he murdered the second cleric who
entered the apartment in order to conceal the first crime.
Members of the Society of Jesus of a Roman Catholic religious order
were killed in an apartment in Petrovka Street on October 28, 2008. Otto
Messmer and Betancourt Victor Ruiz Stenio died of cranial injuries,
Russian police said.