A Russian court in Moscow has punished a Russian nationalists to life sentence for assassinating a renowned human rights lawyer and a reporter.
Nikita Tikhonov, 31, was found culpable of gunfire lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova, a journalist, in the capital Moscow in January 2009.
Tikhonov's girlfriend, Yevgenia Khasis, 26, was imprisoned for 18 years for serving him murder them. Mr Markelov's human rights work had annoyed separatists.
He had shielded Chechens who were sufferers of suspected human rights violence.
Ms. Baburova served on the resistance Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which concentrates in human rights issues.
The killing, carried out in extensive daytime in central Moscow, flashed worldwide allegations that Russia was not doing adequate to detain the murderer of government enemy.
When Tikhonov and Khasis were detained in November 2009, Russian police sources associated them to an banned far-right group, Russian National Unity.
Russian National Unity rejects any participation in the killings and said the two had never been members. Both defendants also refused the allegations and their lawyers say they will appeal, if needed to the European Court of Human Rights.
Prosecutors said Tikhonov had gunshot Ms Baburova, 25, as she was a eyewitness to the killing of Mr. Markelov, 34. The court also feinted that Tikhonov should pay 2m roubles ($73,300) in return to the sufferers relatives.
In his preliminary proof Tikhonov stated the murdering, but later withdraw his story, condemning prosecutors of having harried him. He finally only acknowledged a blame of weapons trading.
Ms. Baburova's mother, Larisa, said she and her husband were contented with the judgment. She told reporters that “we consider their fault is completely verified by the witnesses' proofs and the testimony of the blamed themselves".
According to AFP news agency, a spokeswoman for Novaya Gazeta, Nadezhda Prusenkova, called the prosecutors' job "dazzling". A star reporter for Novaya Gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya, was shot dead in 2006, a murder that originated a global protest. She had reported widely on human rights violence by the Russian security forces in Chechnya.
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