The eldest daughter of the slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov has appealed against the verdicts and sentences of five men convicted for her father's killing and called for the case to be reexamined.
Zhanna Nemtsova has called for prosecutors to change the classification of the case from murder to political assassination, her lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, said on July 21, according to state-run Interfax news agency.
Nemtsov, a reformist former first deputy prime minister who was a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin-installed Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot from behind on a bridge just outside the Kremlin in February 2015.
A Russian court on July 13 sentenced five men from Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya to prison terms ranging from 11 to 20 years for the killing.
Relatives and former associates of Nemtsov claim the killing was ordered at a higher level and said justice would only be served when the real masterminds are identified and prosecuted.
Lawyer Mikhailova said the Nemtsov family "categorically does not agree with the classification of the defendants' actions as murder and considers the crime should be reclassified as assassination of a state or public figure."
Nemtsov was a lawmaker in the region of Yaroslavl and a co-chairman of PARNAS political party at the time of his killing.
