MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) - The defense team for Yevgenia Khasis, who was recently sentenced to 18 years in prison for complicity in the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov, has filed a supervisory appeal against her conviction.
"We have filed a supervisory appeal, requesting that the sentence in relation to Khasis and the appeal court's ruling upholding it be overturned. We want the sentence to be found unlawful and invalid and the case to be heard again," Khasis' attorney Gennady Nebritov told Interfax on Tuesday.
He pointed out that he had filed the appeal on behalf of Khasis only.
Nebritov insisted that "numerous violations of the law were committed while the first-level court was hearing the case."
Alexei Baranovsky, a coordinator of the Russian Verdict center and a close friend of Khasis and Nikita Tikhonov, told Interfax that Tikhonov had not yet file a supervisory appeal.
The two have been transferred from the Lefortovo pretrial detention facility to the penitentiaries where they will serve their sentences, Baranovsky said.
"Tikhonov and Khasis are on their way now. They are going to be transported two or three more days. It is so far unknown where they will be placed," he said.
The Russian Supreme Court earlier upheld the sentence handed down on Tikhonov and Khasis, who were found guilty of killing Markelov and journalists Anastasia Baburova, and so it took legal effect.
Neither Tikhonov nor Khasis pled guilty. Tikhonov only confessed to illegally storing and trafficking in weapons and using fake documents.
Markelov and Baburova were killed near the Kropotkinskaya metro station in Moscow on January 19, 2009.
The Moscow City Court sentenced Tikhonov to life for killing Markelov and Baburova and Khasis to 18 years in jail for complicity in the crime.
Tikhonov and Khasis, a common-law couple, were members of the nationalistic organization Russky Obraz (Russian Image).