Verdict to Tikhonov for creating BORN to be challenged, said his advocate

The decision of the Moscow City Court (MCC) to award Nikita Tikhonov, convicted to life imprisonment for killing the lawyer Markelov, with additional 18 years in prison on charges of creating the extremist community known as BORN will be appealed against, said his advocate. According to the defence, Tikhonov was charged with all the crimes committed by BORN, even those, in which he did not take part.

Let us remind you that on May 6, 2011, Tikhonov was sentenced for life for the murder of Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

According to investigators, the members of the BORN (Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists) committed six murders and two murder attempts. These include, apart from Markelov's murder, the killings of Eduard Chuvashov, an MCC judge on April 12, 2010, Fyodor Filatov, the leader of anti-fascist movements on October 10, 2008, Ilya Djaparidze on June 28, 2009, and Ivan Khutorskoy on November 16, 2009, the world champion in Thai boxing Muslim Abdullaev on December 24, 2009, and other crimes.

"I didn't want to replace my client's life sentence for 25 years in prison; I just wanted to have the judgment consistent with the law," said the advocate Alexei Pershin.

The case of Ilya Goryachev, another alleged organizer of the BORN, was isolated into a separate proceeding. His advocate told on September 22 about the completion of the investigation. Goryachev himself refuses to plead guilty.