Moscow court sentences 13 teenage skinheads for ethnic crimes

Moscow, Sep 22 (UNI) A city court today convicted a teenage group of Russian 'Skinheads' for ethnic crimes and sentenced its 13 members to different prison terms from three to 10 years.

The court ruled they were guilty of inciting ethnic strife and making attempts on human lives.

According to prosecutors, the gang carried out a series of attacks on dark-skinned people of Asian appearance, including the murder of international chess player Sergey Nikolaev.

Nikolaev was attacked last October because of his Asian appearance. It was alleged they battered him to death with a baseball bat.

All the 13 people were found guilty on various charges, including murder and numerous assaults. The racial motive was proved in most of the cases. They used to record their attacks to post the videos on the web.

Initially, prosecution asked for maximum 22 years for certain skinhead gang members.

Most of the accused are under 18 or at least had been underage at the moment of the arrest, that is why media was not allowed to attend the trial.

All of them will be detained in special prisons for the underage.

According to Human Rights campaigners, 71 people have been killed in racially-motivated attacks in Russia this year.

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