A suspect detained in the January killing of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta reporter Anastasia Baburova has admitted to the crime and insisted that he acted alone, his lawyer said Friday.
Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Thursday approved the arrest of Nikita Tikhonov, 29, and another suspect, Yevgenia Khasis, 24, in connection with the killings.
But lawyer Yevgeny Skripelev told Ekho Moskvy radio that Tikhonov had acted alone when he attacked Markelov and Baburova in central Moscow on Jan. 19.
Skripelev also said his client had been motivated by personal animosity and was not linked to any ultranationalist groups. “There were no ideological differences behind it, just a personal grudge,” he said.
Markelov, 34, who defended clients against ultranationalists, had accused Tikhonov of involvement in the murder of a campaigner against hate crimes, Alexander Ryukhin, in southern Moscow in 2006, said Sova Center, which tracks hate crimes. Markelov represented Ryukhin’s mother after the killing.
Several neo-Nazi attackers were convicted in a 2007 trial, but Tikhonov, who was among the suspects, escaped arrest and went into hiding.
Skripelev said Tikhonov had not wanted to shoot Baburova and regretted her death. “He said he had no intention to kill her,” Skripelev said, refusing to elaborate.
Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov told President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday that Tikhonov had confessed to being the masked gunman who carried out the attack.
Bortnikov also said the two suspects were part of a criminal group that carried out a racially motivated murder in September and was planning a high-profile killing.
National media reported Friday that investigators were trying to link the suspects to the shooting death of Rasul Khalilov, a young Caucasus native who was killed as he left his Moscow apartment building to attend a trial where he and several other young men were accused of belonging to a group called the Black Hawks, which allegedly carried out attacks on ultranationalists.
Investigative Committee sources told Kommersant that Tikhonov would be sent for a psychiatric evaluation.
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