11 Jan 2018 12:16

Procession in memory of lawyer Markelov, journalist Baburova to take place in Moscow on Jan 19

MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax) - Moscow authorities have given the green light to a procession on January 19 to commemorate lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasiya Baburova, who were shot dead in Moscow in 2009, the head of the For Human Rights movement, Lev Ponomaryov, one of the organizers of the event, told Interfax.

"City Hall has permitted us to stage a procession in memory of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasiya Baburova on January 19," Ponomaryov said.

The procession will start at 7:30 p.m. and will proceed along Moscow's Tverskoi, Nikitsky, and Gogolevsky Boulevards as far as Prechistenka Street, where a flower-laying ceremony will take place. A maximum of 500 people will participate.

Markelov and Novaya Gazeta reporter Baburova were killed near the Kropotkinskaya subway station in the center of Moscow on January 19, 2009.

On May 6, 2011, the Moscow City Court sentenced Nikita Tikhonov to life in prison after a jury found him guilty of committing the crime. His common-law wife, Yevgeniya Khasis, was found guilty of complicity in the murder and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Experts consider Tikhonov and Khasis to be radical nationalists.