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The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation changed the sentence of neo-Nazi Yevgenia Khasis, convicted of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova, reducing the sentence by 1 year – from 18 to 17 years. About it writes head of the international human rights organization “Agora” Pavel Chikov.
The court upheld the life sentence handed down to Nikita Tikhonov, the second person convicted of murdering Markelov and Baburova. In addition, the Supreme Court refused to send the criminal case for a new trial by jury.
How writes “Novaya Gazeta”, the reduction of the prison term for Khasis is due to the fact that the Supreme Court, after the expiration of the statute of limitations, excluded from the sentence the punishment imposed on them for illegal arms trafficking. Pavel Chikov adds that Khasis is entitled to parole and, most likely, will file a corresponding petition with the Zubovo-Polyansky court of Mordovia in the near future.
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation sent the case of Tikhonov and Khasis for review in December 2021. The basis on which the presidium of the Supreme Court met was the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, which recognized the trial of neo-Nazis as subject to review. Tikhonov, who received a life sentence, and Khasis, who was sentenced to 18 years in prison, filed a complaint with the ECtHR on a violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on the right to a fair trial.
The murder of Markelov and Baburova took place on January 19, 2009 near the White Chambers on Prechistenka in the center of Moscow. They were returning from a press conference about the early release of GRU Colonel Yuri Budanov, who was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing in 2000 an 18-year-old Chechen girl, Elza Kungayeva. Markelov represented the interests of the girl’s family. Baburova, as a journalist for Novaya Gazeta, wrote many anti-fascist articles.
Khasis and Tikhonov were convicted in 2011. Tikhonov was found guilty of murder, arms trafficking and making forged documents and sentenced to life in prison, while Khasis received 18 years in prison. In February 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) recognized the process as unfair – according to the court, the jury in the case was biased, in connection with which the right of the convicts to a fair and fair trial was violated.
Recall that Khasis and Tikhonov are members of the organization of the neo-Nazi group “Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists.” On account of the members of “BORN” many murders.
Neo-Nazis from the group Mikhail Volkov, Maxim Baklagin and Vyacheslav Isaev were found guilty of committing crimes as part of the group. Baklagin and Isaev were sentenced to life imprisonment, Volkov – to 24 years in prison. The court found Baklagin and Isaev guilty of the murders of anti-fascists Ilya Dzhaparidze and Ivan Khutorsky, taxi driver Sos Khachikyan and world champion in Thai boxing Muslim Abdullayev, as well as complicity in the murder of Moscow City Court judge Eduard Chuvashov and the assassination attempt on athlete Ramazan Nurichuev.
In addition, Isaev was found guilty of assaulting district police officer Gagik Benyaminyan. Mikhail Volkov received a sentence for the murder of anti-fascist Fyodor Filatov and member of the Black Hawks group Rasul Khalilov.
Ilya Goryachev, whom the investigation considers the ideologist and inspirer of the murders committed by BORN, was found guilty of leading the group, organizing five murders, banditry and illegal arms trafficking and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, many members of the group are still at large and are not even defendants in criminal cases. Among them is Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Dmitry Steshin, who, according to the testimony of Nikita Tikhonov, helped to obtain weapons for the murder of Markelov and Baburova and in whose apartment Tikhonov was hiding when he was put on the wanted list in the case of the murder of anti-fascist Alexander Ryukhin.
Steshin is a military correspondent for Komsomolskaya Pravda, in many materials he made nationalist statements about the natives of the Caucasus, he suggested entering nationality in the passport of each citizen.
Steshin often criticizes the opposition and the Alexei Navalny Anti-Corruption Foundation. He said that Navalny is “a real new Vlasov, a traitor to the Motherland with nationalist views.” The neo-Nazi leader Ilya Goryachev is the godfather of Steshin’s son.
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