21:00, 15 March 2011

Defence of suspects of murdering Markelov challenge the judge

The defence advocates in the murder case of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova have addressed the Judicial Qualification Board (JQB) of Moscow with a complaint against Judge Alexander Zamashnyuk, who is chairing the trial. According to the defence, the judge had broken ethical norms.

According to advocate Alexander Vasiliev, on March 9 his colleague Gennady Nebritov filed a complaint against Judge Zamashnyuk to the JQB; and today he did it himself. The applications report about the violations of the judicial ethics, admitted by the judge in the advocates' opinion. "The judge had explicitly stated that the aim of the trial is to prove the presence of nationalist views in the defendants, that is, he proclaimed a clearly accusatory inclination," said Vasiliev.

Presently, the court has retired to consider the challenge petition, according to the Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial information (RAPSI).