Moscow: A court has sentenced a Russian nationalist to life in prison for the killing of a prominent human rights lawyer and a journalist.
Moscow City Court on Friday handed the 31-year-old Nikita Tikhonov the maximum sentence after convicting him of shooting to death lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova.
Tikhonov`s 26-year-old girlfriend Yevgenia Khasis was convicted as an accomplice in the January 2009 attack near the Kremlin, and sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.
The 34-year-old Markelov made enemies among the nationalists through his work fighting for the victims of rights abuses in Chechnya. Baburova was walking with Markelov at the time and was thought to have been slain as a witness to his killing.
Both Tikhonov and Khasis denied the charges and have 10 days to appeal the sentence.
Bureau Report
