RUSSIAN COURT ACQUITS SUSPECT IN RACIAL MURDER OF ETHNIC ARMENIAN YOUTH
Interfax
Feb 5 2008
Russia
Moscow, 25 January [dateline as received]: The Moscow Regional Court
returned on Tuesday [presumably 5 February] a not guilty verdict in
the case of the racial murder of the 19-year-old Artur Sardaryan.
An Interfax correspondent reports that a young Muscovite charged
with the murder of [Sardaryan], the Russian citizen born in Armenia,
has thus been acquitted for the second time on the basis of the
jury’s verdict.
The lawyer for the victim’s family, Simon Tsaturyan, told Interfax
that he regarded the ruling as unlawful and unjustified, and would
appeal. "We have no words, only indignation. On the one hand we hear
every day about racial murders and on the other we see acquittals.
The link is obvious: impunity breeds more evil," the lawyer said.
"In the course of the court hearings, the defendant’s lawyers subjected
the jury to immense psychological pressure," he said.
This was a retrial. In June 2007, a court in Moscow Region already
found the young Muscovite not guilty on the basis of the jury’s
verdict. The acquitted teenager later attacked a man from Dagestan
and was sentenced by a court to two years in a juvenile correctional
facility.
On 25 September 2007, the Russian Supreme Court, to which the victims’
relatives and the prosecutor’s office had appealed, overturned the
acquittal and sent the case for a retrial at the Moscow Regional Court.
The prosecution argues that on 25 May 2006 two young men on board a
commuter train from Moscow to Sofrino (the Yaroslavl railway) saw
Sardaryan in the carriage. They decided to dispatch the young man
because they "had feelings of hatred and animosity towards ethnic
Caucasians". [Passage omitted] One of them stabbed Sardaryan at least
five times in the head and neck. The victim died of his wounds.
The underage Muscovite, who name has not been disclosed, was charged
with "taking part in a murder committed by a group of people on
the grounds of ethnic hatred (Article 105, Clauses Zh and L, of the
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)". The other person involved
in the crime has not been identified so far. [Passage omitted]