AWARD WINNING PROFESSOR PULLED FROM RIVER WITH 2 HUMAN ARMS IN HIS BACK PACK

A court in Russia has rejected a defence teams request for a prominent Russian history professor, who is suspected of murdering and dismembering a female student, to be bailed under house arrest until his murder trial.

The St Petersburg court ordered Oleg Sokolov to be remanded for 2 months until the murder trial can start.

Sokolov was arrested on Saturday after being pulled from St Petersburg’s Moika River, where he was  waring a backpack that contained two severed arms.

The arms were identified as those of a student. Police said other body parts were found in Sokolov’s home near the river.

Sokolov has confessed to the killing, according to his brief, Alexander Pochuev.

Investigating police officers  allege that Sokolov shot and killed 24-year-old Anastasia Eshchenko on Thursday at his apartment and then dismembered her body.

Sokolov broke into tears in the courtroom. He said he had a romantic relationship with Ms Eshchenko and gave a rambling account of a quarrel they had, but did not talk about his action in detail.

Sokolov has been awarded France’s highest award, the Legion of Honour, for his studies of Napoleonic France.