MOSCOW, July 9 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday dismissed a request filed by Ilya Goryachev, the alleged leader of the Military Organization of Russian Nationalists (BORN), to recuse the prosecutor from the trial, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Goryachev claims that Prosecutor Maria Semenenko “has made statements and offered opinions that are inappropriate in a trial, has summoned non-credible witnesses, has allowed [Nikita] Tikhonov, who is serving a life sentence, to handle weapon components, and has blamed attorney [Mark] Feigin for the disappearance of a juror.”

Goryachev’s attorneys supported the motion by arguing that the prosecutor seemed to be going to great lengths to put their client behind bars. On Wednesday, Semenenko insinuated that Feigin could be involved in the disappearance of a juror, citing the attorney’s late arrivals as a reason.

“I’ve been waiting for a recusal motion. The defense team has been preparing to file it, but it took them longer than I thought,” Semenenko said.

According to investigators, nationalists Ilya Goryachev and Nikita Tikhonov created the Military Organization of Russian Nationalists (BORN) in Moscow in mid-2008.

Members of BORN have been charged with racketeering, illegal weapons trafficking and several counts of homicide, including the deaths of federal judge Eduard Chuvashov, attorney Stanislav Markelov, and several leaders of Russian anti-Nazi movements.

Markelov was killed in Moscow in January 2009. Investigators believe he was murdered for his participation in an anti-Nazi movement.

Chuvashov was shot and killed in the stairwell of his Moscow apartment building in 2010. During his career with the Moscow City Court, he reviewed over 20 high-profile criminal cases, some of which involved racially motivated murder.

Goryachev was placed on the international wanted list and in November 2013 extradited from Serbia.

Tikhonov, who is believed to be one of the group’s leaders, was convicted and sentenced in May 2011 to life in prison for the murder of Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova.

Tikhonov got 18 extra years in prison last September for killing Chuvashov.

His accomplice, Yevgenia Khasis, was given 18 years behind bars.

In April of this year, the Moscow Region Court sentenced two other BORN members to life behind bars and another person to 24 years in prison.