Daughter of murdered Nemtsov appeals trial verdict

Moscow : The daughter of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has filed an appeal against the verdict in his murder trial, calling for the case to be reexamined, her lawyer said Friday.

A court last week handed lengthy jail terms to five Chechens convicted of the contract killing of Nemtsov, even though his allies insisted the masterminds remain unidentified.

Nemtsov's daughter called for prosecutors to change the classification of the case from murder to political assassination, her lawyer Olga Mikhailova told Interfax news agency.

The former deputy prime minister and fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin was gunned down in February 2015 as he crossed a bridge near the Kremlin.

"As Zhanna Nemtsova's representatives, we have submitted an appeal against the verdict of the Moscow military district court, in which we ask for the verdict to be cancelled and the case returned to prosecutors," lawyer Mikhailova said.

Zhanna Nemtsova had complained after the guilty verdict that "This was not a complete investigation but only an imitation."

Mikhailova said that Nemtsov's family "categorically does not agree with the classification of the defendants' actions as murder and consider the crime should be reclassified as assassination of a state or public figure." 

She backed this by saying that Nemtsov was a regional lawmaker when he was murdered. 

The family's legal team has consistently argued that the motive for Nemtsov's murder was clearly to halt his political and public activities.

Nemtsov's daughter and his supporters have also criticised the investigation for failing to identify the mastermind.

They say that people close to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov who were linked to the murder have not been investigated.