MINELRES: Sentence announced in the case of assault of Roma family in Belgorod
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Tue Sep 19 08:20:19 2006
Original sender: SOVA Center <[email protected]>
15.09.2006, news from the SOVA Center
The sentence was announced in the case over the assault of a Roma family
in Belgorod
September 12, 2006 in Belgorod the far right wing group "Belgorod
National Corps" was found guilty of the assault of a Roma family.
On the night of August 25, 2005 an armed masked youth gang attacked the
house of the Nikolaenko family shouting "Kill the gypsies". According
to an eyewitness, the number of attackers was approximately 20 people. A
Molotov cocktail was thrown into the kitchen window, and then a smoke
barrel - into the room. The awakened inmates of the house started to
extinguish the fire, and Leonid, the owner's son, ran to the yard. He
faced a knife attack, and the owner of the house, Ivan Nikolaenko, and
his wife were beaten by metal bars.
As a result, the wife got a triple hand fracture, and the son - three
knife wounds. Both of them were put into hospital.
The victims had guests at their house that evening, and thanks to that,
the attackers didn't manage to do much harm. The guests stayed at their
house for night and managed to resist the attackers. One of them was
detained by the Roma people themselves. The others were afterwards
detained by police.
The attack was thoroughly planned, for the perpetrators blocked the
street under pretence of renewal and put a "Pass-by" road sign, so that
they could do whatever they want without any disturbance.
There were 11 people detained, including two minors and also former
students of the Judiciary institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
All the detained were charged of hooliganism, deliberate infliction of
grievous bodily harm by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred,
organization of and participation in an extremist group. Three of the
detained were also charged of involvement of minors in criminal
activity.
The trial began on the June 6, 2006, and on the September 12, 2006 all
the defendants were found guilty of the charges.
The group leaders M. Shatrov, A. Petrov and I. Sutula were sentenced to
5, 4 and 3 years of imprisonment respectively. Other seven of them were
sentenced to 1,6 up to 2,9 years of imprisonment, and one of them got a
suspended sentence for his active collaboration with the investigators.
It's notable, that this sentence is only the forth one in Russian court
practice, when the prosecution managed to prove the fact of organization
of and participation in an extremist organization.
SOVA Center for Information and Analisys
www.sova-center.ru
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