The four suspects, who were arrested for the murder of three Chinese women in Russia's southern Siberian Republic of Khakassia, have confessed their crimes. A local investigation committee says a pretrial meeting has been held.

According to local police, the suspects confessed they committed crimes of robbery, kidnapping and murder. Police say they are gathering further evidence and will later hand the suspects over to the courts. The arrests were made early Friday in a village in the Krasnoyarsk region.

Police found three charred bodies near the city of Abakan late Wednesday, soon after a Chinese woman reported that her three compatriots had disappeared. A preliminary investigation indicated that the bodies were those of the missing women.

The Russian interior ministry said the women were taken away in a car by three unidentified men on Tuesday night. The three victims were in their 40s and 50s, and came from the northeastern Chinese provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang to do farm work in Khakassia.

"I feel ashamed that such people as these criminals live in our country," a local resident said.

Xinhua