Russia: Skinhead gang accused of killing 20 in Moscow Russian prosecutors yesterday charged a skinhead gang led by two teenagers with the racist murders of 20 people during a series of brutal attacks in Moscow. Prosecutors said they had charged nine people aged between 17 and 22 with the murders. They identified the ringleaders as Artur Ryno - an art student - and Pavel Skachevsky. One of the gang members was a 22-year-old woman, who allegedly videotaped an attack on one of the victims - a student from Azerbaijan who was severely beaten but survived. The gang targeted victims from post-Soviet republics who were working and studying in Moscow. Ryno was arrested after allegedly stabbing to death an Armenian businessman in April 2007. He told police he had killed more than 30 people, adding the city needed to be cleaned of foreigners who oppressed Russians. The case follows repeated accusations from human rights groups that authorities in Russia fail to investigate racist killings, often labelling xenophobic attacks as hooliganism. According to Sova, a rights group, there were at least 232 victims of hate crime in the first five months of 2008, including 57 murders. Its clear that there is a kind of heroisation on the neo-Nazi scene for those who carry them out, said a spokesman, Alexander Verkhovsky. Some 600 racist attacks took place last year - but resulted in only 20 convictions, Verkhovsky said.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 06:19:50 +0000
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