Moscow, Russia - A Moscow court returned to prosecutors Wednesday the case of a man alleged to have committed fraud by claming he could raise people from the dead, including children lost in the Beslan school siege.
Grigory Grabovoi was charged in April in a case that caused uproar in both Russia and abroad after the head of the controversial sect claimed he could heal diseases and resurrect the dead, especially the 186 children who died after gunmen seized a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan. A total of 331 people died in Russia's worst terrorist outrage.
"The criminal case has been returned for further investigation," a court representative said.
On September 18, the court remanded Grabovoi in custody for another six months and rejected a petition to transfer the case from the Tagansky court to the Ostankino court in Moscow.
"We disagree with the court decisions and intend to appeal them in a higher instance - the Moscow City Court," defense attorney Vyacheslav Makarov said then.
Grabovoi was charged with 11 counts of fraud "under the guise of resurrecting dead relatives of the victims or curing them of serious illnesses," prosecutors said. The accused is said to have collected large sums of money from his victims.