The body of Russian contract killer Alexander Solonik, sought by Russian police after his escape from Moscow's Matrosskaya Tishina penitentiary in August 1995, was found in a suburb of Athens, Greek police said.
Wire service reports Tuesday said Solonik, 37, accused of murdering four Moscow policemen two years ago, was found Sunday strangled and wrapped in plastic bags 20 kilometers north of Athens.
Solonik, known as Sasha Makedonsky -- after Alexander the Great of Macedonia -- because of his reputed skill with weapons, has been accused of numerous contract killings of Russian criminal bosses, a source in Russia's Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
Solonik escaped from Matrosskaya Tishina while under investigation for his involvement in a shooting at the Petrovsko-Razumovsky market in 1995 in which four policemen were killed. The escape was set up by a guard, Sergeant Sergei Menshikov, who is still at large.
Antenna, a private Athens television station, said Solonik was connected to the KGB before the collapse of the Soviet Union, The Associated Press reported.
Russian police denied reports that the body found in Greece has already been identified positively as Alexander Solonik's by Russian experts. Mikhail Doronin of the Interior Ministry press office said that so far Russian police are relying only on information coming from Greece. He denied published reports that a team of Russian police had gone to Greece to conduct an investigation and said it was far too early to comment on the exact cause of death.
"The body will have to be brought to Russia and examined first," he said.
Interfax reported that authorities here could try to identify the body by searching for a syringe left in Solonik by a surgeon in 1995 when the gunman's kidney was removed to save him from a wound suffered in the Petrovsko-Razumovsky shootout.
Wire service reports Tuesday said Solonik, 37, accused of murdering four Moscow policemen two years ago, was found Sunday strangled and wrapped in plastic bags 20 kilometers north of Athens.
Solonik, known as Sasha Makedonsky -- after Alexander the Great of Macedonia -- because of his reputed skill with weapons, has been accused of numerous contract killings of Russian criminal bosses, a source in Russia's Interior Ministry said Tuesday.
Solonik escaped from Matrosskaya Tishina while under investigation for his involvement in a shooting at the Petrovsko-Razumovsky market in 1995 in which four policemen were killed. The escape was set up by a guard, Sergeant Sergei Menshikov, who is still at large.
Antenna, a private Athens television station, said Solonik was connected to the KGB before the collapse of the Soviet Union, The Associated Press reported.
Russian police denied reports that the body found in Greece has already been identified positively as Alexander Solonik's by Russian experts. Mikhail Doronin of the Interior Ministry press office said that so far Russian police are relying only on information coming from Greece. He denied published reports that a team of Russian police had gone to Greece to conduct an investigation and said it was far too early to comment on the exact cause of death.
"The body will have to be brought to Russia and examined first," he said.
Interfax reported that authorities here could try to identify the body by searching for a syringe left in Solonik by a surgeon in 1995 when the gunman's kidney was removed to save him from a wound suffered in the Petrovsko-Razumovsky shootout.