Victims' representatives in Markelov's murder case are sure that Khasis and Tikhonov had accomplices

On May 11, the lawyers, who represent the interests of the victims, said at a press conference that Nikita Tikhonov and Eugenia Khasis, found guilty of murdering lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova, most likely had accomplices.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Roman Karpinsky, representative of the Markelov's family, the press conference was devoted to discussion of the topics related to the outcome of the trial of Tikhonov and Khasis, and those aspects that had not been addressed at the litigation.

In particular, representatives of the suffered party said that the case files contain information about involvement of Tikhonov and Khasis in other crimes, apart from killing Markelov and Baburova.

The lawyer Vladimir Zherebyonkov, who represented the interests of the Baburovs at the trial, believes that the work of investigators had helped the jury to make a fair verdict. "Apart from the audio records, which were investigated at the judicial sessions in the presence of jurymen, the materials of the case contain other records, which indicate that Tikhonov and Khasis had known about crimes and murders; and, apparently, members of their grouping had planned to kill Ivan Khutorskoy and world champion in Thai boxing Muslim Abdulaev. Moreover, Khasis was going to participate in this crime; however, Tikhonov told her not to do it," the lawyer said. "Then, Eduard Chuvashov, Judge of the Moscow City Court, was also shot dead.

According to Zherebyonkov, "now it turns out that Khutorskoy and Chuvashov were killed by the same pistol." "In fact, it turns out that Tikhonov was the head or a member of a grouping, which had committed all these resonant crimes. Investigators will still have to do a lot to clarify all the circumstances about the Khasis-Tikhonov combat grouping," he added.

The lawyer has also pointed out that many wonder about accomplices of the convicts, because many so-called "unidentified persons" figure in the case. "There were accomplices, who helped Tikhonov in committing this crime and prepared other crimes. And after the arrest of Tikhonov and Khasis these crimes were brought to the end," said the representative of the suffered party.

Vladimir Zherebyonkov has noted that "in this situation the issue is in liberal and radical nationalism." He added that "after the arrest of Tikhonov and Khasis new murders were committed; then, it became calmer, when Korshunov and Parinov were put on the search list."

He emphasized that after the murder of Chuvashov, there were no more resonance nationalism-motivated murders. "This suggests that Tikhonov had headed a small but compact fighting unit of nationalists, who stuck to the positions of nationalism and whose goal was to eliminate and intimidate lawyers, judges, journalists and politicians; that is to sow discord and chaos in the society, which should be used later, according to 'Strategy-2020', written by Tikhonov, as established in the case files, for coming to power, as Hitler did in his time," said the lawyer.

Alexander Vasiliev, Nikita Tikhonov's advocate, has confirmed that the "wiretapping" materials confirm that Tikhonov and Khasis really mentioned Khutorskoy in their conversations. But, in his opinion, these very materials state, quite clearly, that they had nothing to do with this case: they were just discussing various news that they got from the Internet or mass media.

"This is why none of these crimes were imputed to Tikhonov and Khasis; while the name of Chuvashov was never mentioned in the case files at all. The suffered party should think about their actions after the verdict will be cancelled within the proceedings in Strasbourg. The Strasbourg Court will find violations of the Convention 'On the Protection of Human Rights'; and they will have to cancel the verdict," Alexander Vasiliev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The lawyer believes that the trial violated Article 6 of the above Convention - the right to a fair and impartial trial; besides, there were repeated violations of the presumption of innocence, of the equality of arms and of the right to defence.