MOSCOW, February 11 (RAPSI, Alexei Afonsky) – Prosecutors  on Wednesday  asked the jury to hand down guilty verdicts to  four alleged members of the extremist group known as Militant Organization of Russian Nationalists (BORN), RAPSI reports from the Moscow Region Court.

Prosecutors said during debates on the case that they consider the defendants’ guilt to be proved.

The defendants are Vyacheslav Isayev, Maxim Baklagin, Yury Tikhomirov and Mikhail Volkov.

The prosecutors presented the jury with sufficient proof of the defendants’ guilt provided by police and prosecutors during the investigation. They said that the defendants’ arguments of their innocence were unreliable.

 The extremist group BORN has been charged with racketeering, illegal weapons trafficking and several counts of homicide, including the deaths of Moscow City Court judge Eduard Chuvashov, attorney Stanislav Markelov, and several leaders of Russian anti-Nazi movements.

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 murder on ethnic grounds.

Markelov was shot and killed in Moscow in January 2009. According to the investigation, he was murdered for his active participation in an anti-Nazi movement.

Volkov, Isayev and Baklagin have pleaded guilty to some of the charges. Tikhomirov insisted that he was innocent.

Nikita Tikhonov, who is deemed to be one of the group’s leaders, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in May 2011 for the murder of Markelov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova. His accomplice Yevgenia Khasis was given 18 years behind bars.

In late September 2014, the Moscow City Court sentenced Tikhonov, who pleaded guilty to killing federal judge Eduard Chuvashov, to 18 years in prison.

Ilya Goryachev, another of the group’s leaders, is suspected of involvement in the murder of judge Chuvashov. He was placed on the international wanted list and in November 2013 extradited from Serbia. He was detained in Russia after the extradition. His case is being heard separately from the other defendants.