Markelov posthumously rewarded by European lawyers

The Board of European Bars and legal societies, which unites over 0.7 million lawyers of the European Union, has posthumously awarded their 2009 prize to lawyer Stanislav Markelov, assassinated this January.

The "Caucasian Knot" wrote that Stanislav Markelov was shot dead on January 19 on his way from the press conference in the Independent Press Centre located in the Prechistenskiy Boulevard in Moscow. The press conference was on early relief former colonel Yuri Budanov.

According to The Irish Times, the Board of European Bars reminds that Markelov, who was also a journalist and director of the Institute of Rule of Law, was engaged in investigating Anna Politkovskaya's murder and represented the interests of Mikhail Beketov, editor-in-chief of the oppositional "Khimki Pravda" and civil victims of the Chechen campaign.

The appeal of the Board to the government of Russia contains a demand to hold immediate investigations into these murders, as reported by the "Gazeta.Ru".