Russia's SC upholds verdict to Tikhonov in case of creating BORN

The Russia's Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the verdict to Nikita Tikhonov in the case of the creation of the extremist community "Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists" (known as BORN) and confirmed his life imprisonment.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 24, 2014, the Moscow City Court (MCC) found Nikita Tikhonov guilty of creating an extremist community – the BORN – and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. Tikhonov pled guilty and entered a pre-trial agreement. However, his defence has appealed against the sentence, claiming that the defendant was charged with all the crimes committed by the BORN.

The Judicial Board on Criminal Cases of the SC did not change Tikhonov's punishment. He is serving a life sentence for the murder of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov; and 18 years in the BORN case will not affect his sentence.

Alexei Pershin, a Tikhonov's defender, asked the SC to change the verdict of the MCC in the part of the punishment and soften it by replacing Tikhonov's life sentence due to the fact that he actively cooperated with the investigation in the course of the BORN case.

According to investigators, the members of the BORN committed six murders and two murder attempts, including the murder of the lawyer Stanislav Markelov, the MCC Judge Eduard Chuvashov, the leaders of the antifascist movement Fyodor Filatov, Ilya Djaparidze and Ivan Khutorskoy, and the world champion in Thai boxing Muslim Abdullaev.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.