Killers of Congolese student get 7-14 years in prison

Moscow, June 19 (UNI) The St Petersburg City Court today sentenced four people convicted of murdering Rolan Epossaca, a Congolese student, in September 2005, to seven to 14 years in prison.

The jury delivered a guilty verdict ruling the murder was racially motivated.

The 29-year-old Epossaca of the St Petersburg Forestry Academy died in hospital after being violently beaten and stabbed several times.

The court sentenced two of the defendants to nine years in a high-security prison, one to seven years, and the other to 4 years in prison.

"Considering the gravity of the crime and its consequences for society after the jury found the suspects did not deserve any leniency and the only possible punishment is their incarceration from society," the presiding judge said.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal the ruling in the Supreme Court.

Last July, a jury handed a not guilty verdict to the four men, but the Supreme Court later dismissed the acquittal.

Routine attacks by skinheads and youth gangs on foreigners and people with dark-skin have been reported across Russia in recent years.

However, authorities have been generally reluctant to treat the attacks as race-hate crimes, portraying them instead as acts of hooliganism.

UNI