Three police officers have been detained for allegedly beating to death a man from Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia region in Moscow while drunk, police said Tuesday.
Federal investigators said an officer, Anver Ibragimov, had beaten up two citizens of Abkhazia while he was intoxicated and "dressed in parts of his uniform." One of the men had died shortly afterwards from his injuries, the Investigative Committee said on its web site, sledcomproc.ru.
A spokesperson for Moscow city police said three officers were being held on suspicion of murder in the incident, which took place late Monday. The policemen have since been fired, he added.
Moscow Police Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev also suspended the officer in charge of Ibragimov's unit after the attack, RIA-Novosti reported.
Kolokoltsev was appointed in April when his predecessor was sacked after another attack. In this incident, a Moscow officer went on a shooting spree on his birthday, killing a female cashier and a man shopping in a supermarket.
The country's police force has come under scrutiny as cracks have appeared in the system. Earlier this month a junior policeman from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk was fired after making an appeal on YouTube to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accusing senior officers of corruption, a claim dismissed by authorities as false.
Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s following a separatist war, was recognized as independent by Russia last year following Moscow's brief war with Tbilisi.
Abkhazia enjoys Russia's support, and most of its 230,000 citizens have been given Russian passports.
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