SIX RUSSIANS JAILED FOR RACIST KILLING

Independent Online, South Africa
March 14 2007

Moscow – Six Russians, including three brothers, have been jailed for
up to eleven years for the racially motivated killing of an Armenian,
a Supreme Court spokesperson said on Tuesday.

An appeal had slightly reduced some of their sentences.

Investigators found a notebook with drawings of swastikas and calls for
violence against non-Slavs at the home of the brothers who together
with their friends attacked the dark-skinned Armenian on a train in
the Moscow region in 2005.

"The Supreme Court has examined an appeal by the defence," Pavel
Odintsov said.

A document detailing the Supreme Court’s conclusions said the Russians
had filmed their attack. The Kommersant daily reported on Tuesday
the video had been posted on the Internet.

One of the Russians shouted: "There’s a black one, let’s go rub him
out!" before the gang went on to kick and beat the Armenian over the
head and body, also using glass bottles and a metal chain with a knot
on the end, the document said.

Then one of the brothers followed a call by his friend to "finish him
off" and killed the Armenian by stabbing him in the neck and stomach
with a glass shard.

Attacks on dark-skinned foreigners in Russia have increased in recent
years as part of a general rise in xenophobia after the collapse
of communism.

President Vladimir Putin has described the trend as a threat to
national security and urged courts and law enforcement agencies to
step up their struggle against racism.