Russian ultranationalist sentenced to life for murder
MOSCOW – A Russian ultranationalist was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for the murders of a human rights lawyer and a reporter in 2009, Radio Liberty reported.
Moscow city court handed down the sentence to 31-year-old Nikita Tikhonov after convicting him earlier this week of shooting human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova.
Tihkonov's girlfriend, 26-year-old Yevgenia Khasis, was convicted as an accomplice in the January 2009 attack and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Prosecutors said both Tikhonov and Khasis were linked to an outlawed ultranationalist group.
Tikhonov and Khasis had pleaded not guilty to the murders.
Markelov and Baburova were shot in broad daylight in Moscow on January 19, 2009 as they left a news conference and walked toward a nearby subway station.
Markelov was a lawyer who had made enemies among nationalists with his work for the victims of rights abuses in Chechnya.
Baburova was a journalist for the liberal "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper.
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