HUMAN RIGHTS activists in Russia have hailed a victory for justice after a Moscow court sentenced an extreme nationalist to life in prison for killing a prominent lawyer and a journalist.
Nikita Tikhonov was jailed for shooting dead lawyer Stanislav Markelov (34) and Anastasiya Baburova (25), a trainee reporter at the Novaya Gazeta newspaper, in January 2009 on a side street in central Moscow. Tikhonov’s girlfriend, Yevgeniya Khasis, was also tried and sentenced to 18 years in a penal colony for helping to co-ordinate the attack by mobile phone.
A jury at Moscow’s city court found the pair guilty after hearing they had targeted Mr Markelov because of his work on prosecutions of neo-Nazis. At the time of his death, the lawyer and Baburova were walking to a metro station after a press conference.
Tikhonov shot Markelov in the back of the head with a pistol from close range and then Baburova when she tried to grab his arm.
Witnesses in court said the defendants laughed and smiled as the sentence was read out. Tikhonov had initially confessed, but both later claimed they were not responsible for the deaths.
During the trial, jurors heard that Tikhonov (31) and Khasis (26) were involved with an ultra-right group called Russky Obraz.
Tikhonov had a motive to seek revenge on Mr Markelov, they heard, because the lawyer had represented the family of a 19-year-old anti-fascist activist murdered in 2006. A search warrant was issued for Tikhonov in connection with that killing and although he was not captured, three accomplices got heavy sentences. – (Guardian service)