The Russian oligarch accused of butchering his wife and teenage daughter before they committed suicide has been murdered, his son claimed today.
Multi-millionaire and former gas manager Sergey Protosenya was found hanged in the garden of his luxury Spanish vacation home, and the bodies of his wife Natalya and 18-year-old daughter Maria were found chopped up with an ax inside.
Spanish authorities have suggested Mr Protosenya, 55, executed the couple before killing himself in an uncharacteristic fit of rage while the family were enjoying an Easter holiday in the Costa Brava last week.
But his son Fedor has claimed his father, who was deputy chairman of Russia’s major gas company Novotek, “could never do anything” to his wife and daughter, and suggested that all three members of his family were murdered.
“My father is not a murderer,” Fedor Protosenya told MailOnline.
Sergey Protosenya’s son Fedor (pictured in Llarete del Mar, Spain) has claimed his father, who had been deputy chairman of Russia’s major gas company Novotek, “could never do anything” to his wife and daughter, and suggested that all three members of his family were murdered
Russian gas tycoon Sergey Protosenya, his wife Natalya, 53, and daughter Maria (pictured together) were found dead at their Spanish mansion in Lloret de Mar on April 19
Sergey and Natalya Protosenya’s Spanish holiday home in Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava, Spain, is closed after the family inside were found dead
Mr Protosenya left no suicide note and no fingerprints were found on the weapons – an ax and a knife – used for the killing. There were no bloodstains on his body.
Spanish police have refused to release the results of post-mortem examinations of the three bodies, carried out over the weekend, citing “police investigative secrecy”.
Fedor, a 22-year-old university student, was not at the villa because he was spending Easter at the family home in Bordeaux, France.
He defended his father by saying: “He loved my mother and especially Maria, my sister. She was his princess. He could never harm them. I don’t know what happened that night, but I know my father didn’t hurt her.
Fedor said the police told him not to discuss the case. He sounded the alarm when he couldn’t reach anyone in his family by phone last Tuesday.
Fedor, a 22-year-old university student, was not at the villa because he was spending Easter at the family home in Bordeaux, France. Fedor is pictured in Lloret de Mar
Protosenya and his wife Natalia, 53, had two children together, the 18-year-old victim and Fedor, who was in France at the time of the alleged shooting
Pictured: Russian gas magnate Sergey Protosenya, his wife Natalya, 53. The couple were found dead in Spain along with their 18-year-old daughter
Catalan police went to the villa and found Mr Protosenya hanged in the courtyard and the mutilated bodies of his wife Natalia, 53, and Maria inside.
Regional police chief, Commissioner Josep Milan, stated that evidence indicated the deaths were the result of a double homicide and suicide, with Protosenya as the killer.
He said: “Investigators are focusing on one person who committed suicide and two people who were killed at home. That’s what we’re looking at.”
The violent deaths have sent shockwaves through the close-knit Russian community in the resort of Lloret de Mar on Spain’s Costa Brava, where Mr Protosenya bought a family holiday home some ten years ago.
Businessman Anatoly Timoshenko, a close friend of the Russian oligarch, told MailOnline: “Sergey didn’t do it. Sergey didn’t kill his family. It is impossible. I don’t want to talk about what might have happened in the house that night, but I know that Sergey is not a murderer.’
Another friend, Roman Yuravich, added: “Sergey didn’t kill his family. I’ve known him for ten years. He was a happy man. He loved his family. He didn’t kill his wife and child. I am sure.’
The oligarch’s death marks the fourth mysterious death of Russian gas company executives and their families linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.
Just days earlier, the body of Vladislav Avayev was found in his elite Moscow penthouse along with his wife Yelena and 13-year-old daughter Maria in another apparent murder-suicide.
Mr Avayev, 51, was previously president of Gazprombank, a bank set up to work for Russian gas giant Gazprom, and was also a Kremlin official.
Vladislav Avayev (pictured), 51, was found in his elite penthouse in Moscow along with his wife Yelena, 47, and daughter Maria, 13
Earlier this year, Alexander Tyulakov (left) and Leonid Shulman (right) also died under suspicious circumstances
In February, the battered and butchered bodies of senior Gazprom executives Alexander Tyulakov and Leonid Shulman were found in their luxury apartments in an elite housing estate near St. Petersburg.
Russian natural gas giant Novatek, where Protosenya was vice chairman before retiring with a £300million fortune, also raised doubts that he could have been responsible for the brutal killings.
In a statement, Novatek said: “Sergey Protosenya has established himself as an outstanding person and a wonderful family man, a strong professional who made a significant contribution to the creation and development of the company.
‘Unfortunately, speculation on this issue has appeared in the media, but we are convinced that this speculation has no relation to reality.’