A former member of Russia's lower house of parliament has signed a plea bargain over the murder of fellow lawmaker Galina Starovoitova in St. Petersburg more than 16 years ago, state media reported Friday.
Mikhail Glushchenko, who is currently in prison serving an eight-year sentence for extortion, reportedly confessed last year to involvement in organizing the 1998 murder of Starovoitova, a democratic reformer.
Under the terms of the plea deal, he is obliged to tell authorities who ordered the killing, state news agency TASS reported Friday, citing an unnamed law enforcement source in St. Petersburg. Three people have already been sentenced to prison time over the case, but as with other high-profile political murders in Russia, the person who ordered the killing has never been found.
Starovoitova was shot to death inside her apartment building in central St. Petersburg on November 20, 1998.
The investigation was reopened in 2013, and Glushchenko was formally charged later that year with conspiring to commit murder.
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