The killers found out the terms: two members of a gang of hired killers were sentenced in Orenburg

In Orenburg, on January 18, the verdict was announced to two members of a criminal group, which was responsible for a whole series of murders that caused a great resonance in the region.

By decision of the regional court, the organizer of the gang, Viktor Bertholts, who took an active part in all crimes, will spend the rest of his life behind bars, his accomplice Alexander Orshlet was acquitted on a number of charges and received 18 years in a strict regime colony.

He was found guilty only of the murder of an unidentified man of no fixed residence on the banks of the Salmysh River, whom the bandits dealt with for the sake of training.

The trial of Bertholz and Orschlet lasted more than a year.

At the same time, given the testimony of the accomplices of the bandits who went to the deal, few doubted that the sentence for both would be as severe as possible.

The state prosecution asked for a life sentence for both defendants, demanding also to satisfy the claims of the victims, the total amount of which is about 30 million rubles.

bloody way 

As the investigation established in 2015, the gang was created by Alexander Orshlet, Viktor Bertholts, Nikita Ignatov and Alexei Khudaev.

Later they were joined by Viktor Belkin and Ivan Kozachkov.

Eight people were killed, including a young child.

The killed were mostly entrepreneurs who were decided to eliminate by their ill-wishers, whose identities are still unknown.

One of the most resonant crimes of the gang was the murder of 35-year-old Denis Chernov and his seven-year-old son, who were stabbed to death on January 17, 2018 in their own car on Lugovaya Street.

According to the materials of the case, it was Bertholz who stabbed the man, whom the killers had been following for a long time, and the child was beaten with a knife by his previously convicted accomplice Viktor Belkin, who managed to break the knife in the process of killing the boy.

The bandits prepared the next murder for a long time and committed it in May 2019, killing not only their victim, director of the Orenburg branch of Gazpromtrans LLC Andrey Bakharev, but also his wife, with whom they were going to fly on vacation that day, as well as the driver .

As the investigation established, the criminals planned another place for the murder of Bakharev, where they were supposed to stop his car, but it never appeared there.

As a result, the criminals broke into his country house, where they committed the murder.

After the massacre, they went to kill the driver Bakharev in order to take possession of the car and leave the village, where they traveled on foot.

But in the end, the killers could not get a foreign car.

Already during the trial, it became clear that the reason for the reprisal against Bakharev was a certain “debt to the brother”.

Another victim of the killers was businessman Sergei Sedykh, who was strangled with a cord from a vacuum cleaner in his own house.

As a result, Bertholz was found guilty on all charges and the only one of all the participants received the maximum possible term - life imprisonment.

He met the verdict quite calmly.

Earlier, he declared his innocence, the same position was voiced in court by his lawyer.

As for Alexander Orshlet, in addition to the murder on the river bank, committed together with Belkin, the investigation charged him with a number of less serious crimes - providing other members of the gang with a car, clothes and other items necessary to commit a crime.

He was suspected of being an accessory to six murders, two hijackings, and one attempted hijacking.

However, the court considered these charges unproven, finding him guilty of only one murder.

"We will study the verdict"

Viktor Bertholz's lawyer Alexei Kiryushin told RT after the trial that he did not comment on the case.

The lawyer of Alexander Orshlet told RT that he does not yet know whether he will appeal the verdict - it all depends primarily on the position of his client.

“Initially, our position was such that Orshlet should be acquitted in general in all episodes.

There is no indirect, direct, material evidence, no witness testimony, no expert research that would confirm his guilt on justified episodes.”

We will read the verdict, its text has not yet been handed to us.

And according to what evidence the judge put as the basis for the guilty verdict, we will make a decision, ”said lawyer Maxim Vasilyev.

After the announcement of the court verdict, the public prosecutor Vladimir Komin summed up the results of the trial.

“The role of Bertholz in the commission of these crimes was the most active, he attracted other members of the organized criminal group, prepared plans, distributed duties and personally took part in the murders of eight victims.”

“The role of the defendant Orshlet, also an active member of the criminal group, was somewhat less.

According to the indictment, he took part directly in the murder of a man without a fixed place of residence, he took part in other crimes by providing a car for the use and movement of members of the organized crime group.

He also developed plans for the murders and took part in the preparation of these crimes, ”Ural56.ru quoted Komin as saying.

According to him, after a detailed study of the court decision, the issue of appealing the sentence against Alexander Orshlet will be resolved.

In this case, the opinion of the victims will also be taken into account.

One is dead, another is being sought.

Two other members of the group had previously been sentenced to long prison terms.

The very first convict was Viktor Belkin.

By making a deal with the investigation and agreeing to testify against his accomplices, he avoided a life sentence and first received 19.5 years in prison, to which the cassation instance then added another year and a half.

In December 2022, Ivan Kozachkov was sentenced to 19 years in prison.

To avoid a life sentence, he also agreed to a deal with the investigation.

Two other members of the gang could not be held accountable.

Nikita Ignatov, who gave the most exhaustive testimony against his accomplices, died in the summer of 2021 in a pre-trial detention center from tuberculosis.

Before his death, he refused food and was even force-fed.

According to local media, this behavior began to be observed after the media learned the details of his testimony against accomplices, while one of Ignatov's conditions for cooperation was complete confidentiality.

The sixth member of the gang managed to escape from the investigation.

41-year-old Aleksey Khudaev has been put on the federal and international wanted list.

According to Orenday, other members of the group admitted that it was Khudayev who was in contact with those who ordered the murders and knows who exactly was behind each of them.