Eliminaing Russian Nuisances

"State organs of the government of the Russian Federation took the decision to liquidate Tornike Khangoshvili in Berlin."

"Khangashvili had given up the fight against the Russian Federation years before. He had not held a weapon in his hands since 2008."

"This was not an act of self-defence by Russia. This was and is nothing other than state terrorism."

Judge Olaf Arnoldi, Berlin court 

"This murder, ordered by a state, is a serious violation of German law and Germany's sovereignty."

"Acts like the murder in [Berlin's] Tiergarten park seriously burden relations between our countries."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock

Russian President Putin | German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Photograph:( AFP )

 

Germany summoned the Russian ambassador to Germany, to inform him that two of the embassy's 101 diplomatic staff were to be expelled, following the trial and ruling by Justice Arnoldi when he sentenced Vadim Krasikov for the "especially serious" crime of murder of a former Chechen militant. The Russian agent dispatched to do the work of assassinating a man that President Vladimir Putin spoke of as a "bloody terrorist" was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2019 act of "state terrorism".

The verdict, in the opinion of the Russian Embassy was "not objective and politically motivated". In 2019, Russian President Putin accused the murdered man of involvement in crimes that included the 2004 bombing if the Moscow metro, when ten people were killed. Georgian citizen Tornike Khangoshvili died of three shots from a Block pistol in August of 2019 in evident retaliation for his role fighting for Chechen separatists against Moscow in the 2000s.

Russia had supplied their hit man with false papers to use when travelling toward his destined target. His assignment began when Krasikov flew to Paris equipped with a false passport and from there journeyed on to Berlin In  his possession was thousands of euros in cash to enable his swift departure once his assignment had been completed.

As Khangoshvili cycled through the famed Berlin park on a beautiful sunny August day, Krasikov lethally shot his target, then hid behind shrubbery where he removed his clothing and his cap, replaced them with an innocuous tourist-type outfit, trimmed his beard, and prepared to saunter out and make good his escape from the scene. Unfortunately for his well-laid plans, there were witnesses.

 

The murderer's plan of escape was rent asunder when armed police within minutes surrounded him and others retrieved the discarded clothing, the murder weapon and brought Khangoshvili's bicycle out of the river. The arrested man now claims he is not Krasikov, but a construction engineer from St.Petersburg with the name of Vadim Sokolov. The lawyer for the arrested, tried and sentenced man claims the case against his client was built on conjecture, not proof. 

Russian assassins have a long history of murder by grotesque means of one kind or another to rid the nation's powerful and popular leader of irritating critics, of embarrassing turncoats, of those possessing state-incriminating evidence of more than nuisance value. From the use of military-grade chemical weapons to radioactive poisons, they leave their trademark, clumsy clues used to identify the perpetrators, linking them directly to the state apparatus assigned to eliminate state opponents.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili's body was carried during his funeral in Duisi village in the Pankisi Gorge valley. - AP Photo/Zurab Tsertsvadze - August 2019

Exploiting Public Office for Entertainment

"No one expects their children to die before them but to have two out of three of  your children to be murdered on the same night is just incomprehensible."

"[The officers' crimes was a] betrayal of catastrophic proportions. Jaffer and Lewis callously committed, to my mind, a sacrilegious act."

"It made me think of the lynchings in the Deep South of the USA where you would see smiling faces around a hanging dead body."

"These police officers felt so safe, so untouchable that they felt they would take photographs with our murdered daughters."

Mina Smallman, Church of England Archdeacon, mother of two murdered women

The bodies of Bibaa Henry (left) and Nicole Smallman were found intertwined in undergrowth   Photo courtesy of Henry, Smallman families

To serve and protect, basically the universal code of police forces everywhere in democratic societies. On occasion the public trust is betrayed by the outrageous and often criminal behaviours of a small number of people who take that oath lightly, as officers of the law. Two British police officers did just that in a heartlessly outrageous manner when they decided to exploit their proximity to a macabre murder scene, by taking photographs for the distinct purpose of sharing them.

The choice of who to share them with was almost as shocking as their invasion of privacy of two murdered women; in effect a degrading, shameful performance. Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33, admitted in a court of law to using their phones to take images of the murdered women's bodies. Upon which they superimposed their faces, sharing the images through WhatsApp. Those with whom they shared these offences-against-the-dead were junior officers being mentored by the two older, experienced officers.

 

Deniz Jaffer and Jamie Lewis, who were sentenced after a criminal trial at which the two pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

 

As a demonstration of just how cool they were facing death, in the most macabre way imaginable? As a source of amusing entertainment, by abusing the sad memory of two viciously slashed-to-death women for the jollification of their junior peers? Judge Mark Lucraft described their actions as "appalling and inexplicable". The memory of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry assaulted for "cheap thrills and bragging rights", commented the judge as he sentenced them to three years in prison.

 

Nicole Smallman, 27, and her sister Bibaa Henry, 46, had been stabbed to death by 19-year-old Danyal Hussein in Fryent Country Park, Wembley in June of last year. He is described as having been "Satan-obsessed". At his trial, he was sentenced to life with a minimum of 35 years. The two women's mother who attended the sentencing hearing with other members of the family heard details of the messages the two officers sent alongside the photographs they posted on social media. 

"[You had dragged the bodies away and posed them in an embrace to] defile [them in death]." 

"You had found these two women. You were a stranger to them. You surprised them, you terrified them and you killed them." 

"You committed these vicious attacks. You did it to kill. You did it for money and a misguided pursuit of power." 

"The lives of your victims' loved ones have been] shattered."

Mrs. Justice Whipple, Blackheath courtroom

Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman were celebrating the older sister's birthday  Met Police/PA Media

Familicide: The High Cost of Protecting a Lie

Menhaz Zaman, 24, Quadruple Murderer

"Words such as brutal, cruel, cold and callous do not begin to convey the enormity of his violence. It is difficult to imagine a more horrific way to take a human life than by slitting the victim's throat. Mr. Zaman did so not just once, but four separate times over a span of hours." 

"No right-thinking member of society would see any remote correlation between the imminent disclosure of the secret of Mr. Zaman's non-attendance at school and the vicious taking of the lives of the four people closest to him."

"That Mr. Zaman saw such a connection and acted on it in the cold and calculated manner that he did is deeply disturbing."

"The betrayal of trust involved in these crimes is enormous."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Newmarket Ontario Court of Justice, November 2, 2020

Back in July of last year, an online gamer told CTV News Toronto that Zaman “messaged many of his friends, including myself, about the details of the murder, during the act.”

A young man living in Markham, Ontario, just north of Toronto, and part of the Greater Toronto region, lied for years to his family who were under the impression that he was attending York University in north Toronto toward a degree in engineering. He was not attending university, but chose to attend Seneca College for an electronics engineering program for several years, which he failed in. He then spent his daytime  hours in a mall nearby his family home, and played video games at home, all the while describing to his family his university courses and how well he was managing his classes. 

His purpose was simply stalling for time, with no end-game in sight, as long as his family continued to believe he was following the course set for him, to get a good education in his chosen field of endeavour, to become a responsible young adult and to forge a life for himself. All the while he was leading his family to believe he was doing just that, while he was not. With each lie told, a deeper pit was dug. He seemed aimless, content to while away the hours, keeping the truth from his trusting family. Whom he was determined to keep the reality of the situation from.

And it seems he finally found the route to ensure they would never discover his ploys and his chosen field of endeavour; hanging out, playing online games, finding community with other gamers. It was some of those other gamers whom he contacted, informing them that he was in the process of solving his dilemma. As he planned and undertook to complete the plan to rescue himself from the network of lies he had woven. A gaming friend in Minnesota, another in Tunisia, were texted informing them of what Zaman was doing and just to ensure they fully understood, photographs of the bloody bodies of  his family accompanied the texts.

Those far-flung friends frantically called the Toronto police hoping to alert authorities. The IP address from the communications was identified at a home in Markham. York Regional Police, whose jurisdiction it was, were called into action by the Toronto Police Service, and they sent officers to the home where they discovered the bodies of 70-year-old Firoza Begum, 59-year-old Monirus Zaman, 50-year-old Momtaz Begum, and 21-year-old Malesa Zaman.

On the afternoon of the day prior to Zaman's 'graduation from university', he began to carry out his plan to avoid having to tell his family that he had lied to them for years. He killed his mother by slitting her throat, and an hour later he did the same to his grandmother. It would be hours before his sister and father arrived home, so he played video games and napped while he waited. When his sister got home around 11 p.m. she too was killed by having her throat slit. His father was next, attacked as soon as he returned home an hour later.

 

Police took Zaman into custody, and he pleaded guilty. The Crown attorney and the defence both requested Zaman receive 25 years of parole ineligibility for the first-degree murder counts to be served concurrently, along with an additional 15 years of ineligibility for the second-degree murder count to be served on top. Menhaz Zaman pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and one-count of second degree murder for killing his parents, sister and grandmother in their home in Markham on July 27, 2019. All of those murder counts carry automatic life sentences. 

At his sentencing hearing, Zaman apologized to anyone he had "impacted negatively" as a result of the murders. That apology needless to say discounted his immediate family members for they were indeed negatively impacted and no apology would ever reach their ears, and nor would they find comfort in such words from an accomplished liar. For his "deeply disturbing" crimes, Menhaz Zaman was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years, a particularly benevolent penalty for an unspeakable crime.

The victims were his 21-year-old sister Malesa Zaman, his 59-year-old father Moniruz Zaman, his 50-year-old mother Momotaz Begum, and his 70-year-old grandmother Firoza Begum. Facebook

 

"Mr. Zaman executed four unsuspecting family members in their own home. It defies understanding that while his mother and grandmother lay upstairs in their own blood, Mr. Zaman played video games and napped to pass the time, apparently untroubled as he lay in wait to slay his sister and father in the same manner."

Justice Michelle Fuerst, Ontario Court of Justice