Suspect Confesses to Killing Human Rights Lawyer and Journalist

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ New Your Times

November 6, 2009

MOSCOW—The man suspected of murdering a prominent human rights lawyer and a journalist last January has admitted to committing the crime, saying he did so out of “personal enmity” for one of the victims, his lawyer said on Friday.

Investigators say that Nikita Tikhonov was the shooter, while his accomplice, Yevgenia Khasis, acted as lookout. Both have been identified as ultranationalists, and were arraigned in Moscow on Thursday.

The attack, which shook the beleaguered human rights community here, was carried out in broad daylight just blocks from the Kremlin as Stanislav Markelov, the lawyer, and a reporter, Anastasia Baburova, were leaving a press conference. Investigators say that Mr. Tikhonov ran up behind them and opened fire, instantly killing Mr. Markelov, 34. Ms. Baburova, a 25-year-old trainee reporter, was mortally wounded and died later at the hospital.

Mr. Tikhonov intended to kill only Mr. Markelov, his lawyer, Yevgeny V. Skripilyov, said on Echo Moskvy radio.

“He said that he committed the murder of the lawyer, Markelov,” Mr. Skripilyov said. “There were no ideological differences, just personal enmity.”

Mr. Skripilyov would not elaborate, though his remarks suggest that his client is the same Nikita Tikhonov named as a prime suspect in the 2006 murder of an anti-fascist campaigner. Mr. Markelov, who represented a surviving victim of that attack, is widely credited with securing serious prison sentences for the accessories to that murder.

Mr. Tikhonov, however, was never arrested in that case.

Mr. Skripilyov said Mr. Tikhonov told him that Ms. Baburova’s death was an accident, seeming to clear up a longstanding question of whether the journalist, too, was a target.

“It was an unconscious act,” Mr. Skripilyov said. “He found out later and did not know that she had been mortally wounded,” he said, speaking of Mr. Tikhonov. “He says that he did not intend to cause her death and deprive her of life.”

It is still unclear whether Mr. Tikhonov and Ms. Khasis acted alone, or in coordination with one of Russia’s numerous nationalist groups.

The chief of Russia’s Federal Security Service, Aleksandr Bortnikov, said on Thursday that the two were arrested during a sweep of extremist groups.

So far, however, no other arrests have been announced. Little is known about Ms. Khasis.

Mr. Tikhonov’s acquaintances within nationalist circles remain unconvinced that he could have carried out this murder.

“Tikhonov does not seem like the kind of person who could commit cold-blooded murder,” said Dmitri N. Dyomushkin, leader of the neo-fascist Slavic Union. “He was a quiet journalist, went to protests and stood in the periphery,”

In a twist, Mr. Dyomushkin said investigators have also named him as a suspect, though he has not been arrested or even questioned.

“It seems that there is a theory that Markelov’s murder was ordered by the Slavic Union, and by Dmitry Dyomushkin personally,” Dmitri Bakharyev, Mr. Dyomushkin’s lawyer, said. “We’ll see how the situation develops.”