Married Couple Charged In Killing of Norwegian.

(From The Moscow Times)

A married couple has been charged with the murder of a Norwegian man and his Russian wife in the southern city of Astrakhan, a top regional investigator said Friday.

The suspects, a 27-year-old man and his 23-year-old wife, were friends of Norwegian engineer Staale Helseth and his wife, Svetlana, and stand accused of shooting the couple dead last week after partying with them at a local nightclub, said Alexei Bessonov, chief investigator at the Astrakhan regional branch of the Investigative Committee.

The suspects have been charged with premeditated murder and intent to rob, Bessonov said in a telephone interview. If convicted, they face up to life in prison.

The couple was placed under arrest Thursday for three months, and the father of the female suspect has been detained as a possible accomplice, Bessonov said.

Helseth, 40, and his wife Svetlana, 23, were discovered dead with gunshot wounds in their Astrakhan apartment Tuesday, though they were murdered a day earlier, investigators said.

The two couples had been partying at a local nightclub on the evening of June 29 when the female suspect, a university classmate of Svetlana's, asked if she could stay the night at the victims' ...