Jury to come to verdict on lawyer's murder case

MOSCOW, April 28 (Itar-Tass) -- A jury in the Moscow City Court on
Thursday is expected to come to a verdict in case over the murder of
lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova in the winter
of 2009.
On Wednesday, the court heard the parties' arguments and presiding
judge Alexander Zamashnyuk declared the court trial over. On Thursday,
after hearing Zamashnyuk's instructions the jury will withdraw for
deliberation on a verdict in the case.
Shortly before the end of hearings, the suspected killers, Nikita
Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis attempted to commit suicide, but medics said
the injuries posed no threat to their health. According to the lawyer
for the victims, Vladimir Zherebenkov, the suicide attempt was
obviously a cunning trick aimed to thwart court proceedings and arouse
pity so as to make the jury court more lenient.
Lawyer of Inter-Republican Bar Moscow Markelov and Novaya Gazeta
string correspondent Baburova were shot to death on January 19, 2009. An
unidentified gunman attacked Markelov, 34, and Baburova, 25 in
Prechistenka Street near the Christ the Savior Cathedral in downtown
Moscow. They were returning from a news conference. Baburova, a 5th-year
student at the MGU department of journalism, died in hospital. She covered
nationalism and neo-nazism.
Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis were arrested in November 2009.
The suspects denied their guilt.
According to the investigators, the motive behind the murder was
"intolerance and ideological hate, as well as the hate the suspects felt
toward the lawyer's professional activity to protect the rights and
freedoms of persons who supported the anti-Nazi ideology," the PGO
spokeswoman said.