MADRID, Dec 9 (Reuters) – A Spanish court has provisionally closed its probe into the killing of a Russian pilot who had defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in a garage on Spain’s Mediterranean coast last year, saying on Tuesday it could not identify any perpetrators.
Pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who flew to Ukraine with his Mi-8 helicopter in August 2023, was found dead on February 13, 2024, in an underground garage in the southeastern Spanish town of Villajoyosa. His body was riddled with bullets and he was carrying a Ukrainian passport under a suspected fake name.
The judge in Villajoyosa shelved the case after police said it had not been possible to determine the perpetrator or mastermind behind the shooting.
However, the case could be reopened if new evidence emerges in the future.
Kuzminov’s defection to Ukraine was presented in 2023 as a major coup for the Ukrainian government as it fights Russia’s invasion. Appearing at a news conference, he said he could not understand why his “beloved motherland” would enter into a war with Ukraine.
Other members of the air crew died during his defection. Moscow said Kuzminov killed them; he said they panicked and fled, and may have been killed subsequently.
(Reporting by Emma PinedoEditing by Frances Kerry)
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