European award for dead Russian lawyer
The Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, representing more than 700,000 lawyers from the EU and European Economic Area, has granted its 2009 Human Rights Award to Stanislav Markelov, a Russian lawyer assassinated on January 19th in Moscow.
Markelov, who was also a journalist and president of the Rule of Law Institute, defended Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist shot dead in Moscow in 2006 while she was investigating atrocities of the Chechen war by the Russian military. He also represented Mikhail Beketov, editor of a pro-opposition newspaper assaulted in 2008, and several Chechen nationals tortured during the Chechen wars.
He was assassinated days after the early release of an army colonel who was convicted of the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Chechen woman, as he left a press conference at which he denounced the early release. A journalist at the press conference was also killed.
The council wrote to the Russian government urging it to carry out an immediate investigation into the two murders.
Läs originalartikeln i Irish Times här.