18:51, 16 February 2021

ECtHR demands to reconsider verdicts to persons sentenced for murder of Markelov and Baburova

Meeting room of the ECtHR. Photo: CherryX https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Европейский_суд_по_правам_человека pm MSK.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has pronounced a decision that the Supreme Court of Russia should reconsider the unjust verdicts to Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, sentenced for the murder of advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Stanislav Markelov was killed on January 19, 2009, in Moscow after a press conference on the release from prison of former Colonel Yuri Budanov, who had served his prison term on charges of murdering a Chechen girl, Elza Kungaeva. Anastasia Baburova, a journalist with the "Novaya Gazeta" newspaper, was also killed in the attack on Markelov.

In September 2011, the Supreme Court (SC) of Russia dismissed the cassation appeals filed against the verdicts to Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, who were found guilty of murdering advocate Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova. The defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and 18 years of imprisonment, respectively. After the court hearing, the defence of the convicts decided to appeal to the ECtHR.

Today, the European Court of Human Rights has recognized the trial in the case against Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis as "unfair and subject to revision." The Strasbourg Court made a conclusion about a "biased" attitude of jurors.

Pavel Chikov, the head of the "Agora" human rights group, has explained that after the entry into force of the ECtHR's decision, the Supreme Court of Russia should reconsider the verdict of life sentence to Nikita Tikhonov, the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta" reports today.

In their complaint to the ECtHR, the complainants stated that the Russian court violated the right of Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis to a fair trial and that the attitude of some jurors was biased.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 16, 2021 at 01:29 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.