Russian nationalist combatants found guilty of 6 murders

The jury has issued a guilty verdict in the case of the Combat Organization of the Russian Nationalists (BORN), members of which were accused of murder. The jury answered affirmatively to almost all the 69 questions posed by the judge.

Only Yuri Tikhomirov was acquitted. He was accused of illegal arms trafficking and for involvement in the murder of Ilya Dzhaparidze, an antifascist activist. He was charged with the murder of Dzhaparidze already in 2012 in a separate case, and is currently serving his prison sentence.

Vyacheslav Isayev, Maxim Baklagin and Mikhail Volkov also stood trial. They were accused of the murders of antifascist activists Fyodor Filatov, Ilya Dzhaparidze and Ivan Khutorsky, as well as the murders of judge Eduard Chuvashov, Thai boxing champion Muslim Abdullayev, and Ruslan Hallilov, a member of the radical nationalist group Chernye yastreby (Black Hawks), known for racist attacks against people of “Slavic appearance.”

The court is yet to announce the final sentence.

The judge thanked the jurors, “Thank you to tbe jurors in the name the victims, their families, and Russia. A fair sentence will be issued based on your answers.”

BORN members Nikita Tikhonov and his wife Evgeniya Khasis were accused of the 2009 killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova.

At the BORN trial, Evgeniya Khasis testified that the combat organization enjoyed the patronage of members of the Presidential Administration.

One of the leaders of BORN, Eduard Chuvashov, died in a grenade explosion in Ukraine in 2011.

Ilya Goryachev, who the investigation considers to be the mastermind behind the murders, is currently under arrest. His case has not yet been handled by the court.