Stanislav Yuryevich Markelow

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Stanislaw Jurjewitsch Markelow ( Russian Станислав Юрьевич Маркелов ; born May 20, 1974 in Moscow ; † January 19, 2009 ibid) was a Russian lawyer .

Stanislaw Markelow (August 2008)

Life

Stanislaw Markelow criticized the “degradation of the legal system” in Russia and founded the non-governmental organization “Institute for the Supremacy of Law”. He also represented Russian citizens not only before Russian courts, but also before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He positioned himself politically as a social democrat in the tradition of Julius Martow and cooperated in his political work with members of various left organizations and currents.

Among other things, he has become known as legal counsel for the journalist Anna Politkowskaja (murdered 2006), who is critical of the government . Politkovskaya praised Markelov as "the first lawyer who works in Chechnya and protects the rights of the residents there". He had also represented the relatives of the Chechen student Selimchan Murdalov in the proceedings against Sergei Lapin from the OMON police special task force (Murdalov was arrested by Russian OMON members in Grozny in January 2001 and then tortured to death). Presumably in connection with this trial, Markelov was beaten up in the Moscow subway in April 2004 .

Markelow had also acted as a lawyer for the editor-in-chief of Chimkinskaya Pravda Mikhail Beketov , who had been beaten into a coma in November 2008 in his own garden. And he campaigned against the release of Russian Army Colonel Yuri Budanov , who had been sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a Chechen woman and was released early on January 15, 2009.

Markelov received death threats because of his involvement in the Budanov case. On January 19, 2009, after he had announced at a press conference that he would proceed against Budanov's release from prison, Markelov was shot dead in the middle of downtown Moscow. Anastassija Baburova , a Novaya Gazeta journalist , was also killed in the attack .

Reactions to the attack

In Moscow, Saint Petersburg and the Chechen capital Grozny , hundreds of people took to the streets the day after the attack to commemorate the two victims. Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov posthumously awarded the murdered lawyer the Order of Merit of the Chechen Republic.

The President of the European Commission , José Manuel Barroso , announced through a spokesman that the EU Commission was shocked by this incident. "People who are committed to human rights, journalists who report critically, must be able to do so safely and without endangering life and limb." That is why the EU Commission expects such crimes to be cleared up without delay. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also urged the Russian authorities to investigate the crime and its background immediately and impartially.

Investigation into the murder

On November 5, 2009, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported the arrest of two suspects, citing security forces. It is a young man and a young woman who belonged to a nationalist movement. The alleged murderer confessed to the fact a little later: According to his lawyer, he had killed Markelow for personal reasons; the offense had no connection with the victim's professional activity.

The trial against Nikita Tikhonov, who was 29 at the time of the crime, and his partner Yevgenia Chassis before the Moscow City Court began in February 2011 and lasted until the end of April 2011; Tikhonov received a life sentence for murder, Chassis 18 years imprisonment for aiding and abetting. The defense announced an appeal.

The question of whether it was contract killing remained unresolved in this first trial. In the verdict, the jury noted that there may have been other accomplices, but that they could not be further verified.

Works

The text collection “Stanislaw Markelow. Nobody but me ”with texts, interviews and lectures by Markelow.

memory

From the first year the lawyer was murdered, anti-fascist commemorative marches took place, including in 2019 for both of those killed.

Movies

Web links

Commons : Stanislav Markelov  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of the Rule of Law Institute ( Memento from January 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (with an overview of Stanislaw Markelow's legal work )
  2. ^ "'The murderers are among us'" , Spiegel-Online , January 20, 2009.
  3. ^ "Stanislav Markelov and anarchists"
  4. ↑ “Human rights lawyer and reporter murdered in Moscow” , Die Zeit , January 20, 2009.
  5. ↑ Amnesty International, Urgent Action: Stanislaw Markelow, 29-year-old human rights defender ( memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), April 29, 2004.
  6. ↑ "The killer shot from behind in the head" , Welt Online, January 20, 2009.
  7. ^ "Protests in Moscow and Grozny" , taz.de, January 23, 2009.
  8. ↑ “Russia asked to investigate the Markelow and Baburova murders” , Deutsche Welle online, January 22, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Russia: Investigate Murder of Prominent Rights Lawyer," Human Rights Watch online, January 19, 2009.
  10. ↑ "Amnesty mourns Stanislaw Markelow and Anastassija Baburowa" , amnesty.de, January 21, 2009.
  11. ^ "Murder plot in Moscow apparently resolved" , NZZ online, November 5, 2009.
  12. ↑ "Suspect admits double murder" , Spiegel online, November 6, 2009.
  13. ^ "Nationalist Version" , Moscow German newspaper, February 4, 2011.
  14. ^ "Detention for murders in Moscow" ( Memento from September 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Sueddeutsche.de, May 7, 2011.
  15. ^ "Right-wing extremists condemned in Moscow", Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 30, 2011 (print edition).
  16. ↑ a b His life has shown itself to be loyalty to the ideals of youth , Novaya Gazeta, January 19, 2019
  17. ↑ Collection of Markelov's works presented in Moscow , Caucasian Knot, May 27, 2010
  18. ↑ "It is better to be the fifth column than on the side of the Nazis" , Novaya Gazeta, January 19, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Markelow, Stanislaw Jurjewitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Маркелов, Станислав Юрьевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1974
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 2009
Place of death Moscow