Russian group reports 8 arrests at Moscow human rights march

MOSCOW – A Russian group that monitors political repressions said eight people were detained by police Sunday at a march in Moscow commemorating a human rights lawyer and a journalist who were fatally shot 11 years ago.

There was no immediate information from the OVD-Info group about charges against those taken into custody who were part of a demonstration of about 1,500 people.

The demonstrators were marking the 2009 killing of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova.

The two had just left a news conference where Markelov announced that he would seek to overturn the early release from prison of a Russian military officer convicted of raping and murdering a young woman in Chechnya. A Russian nationalist was sentenced to life in prison for the killings.