Interfax, Russia
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 22, 2008 Friday 1:32 PM MSK

St. Pete investigators complete inquiry into murders of Girenko, two
foreign students

ST. PETERSBURG Feb 22

The investigative committee of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office
has completed its inquiry in the case against members of a gang
believed to have killed right activist Nikolai Girenko and two
foreign students.

There are 16 suspects in the case, some of them have been arrested,
and others are subject to travel restrictions, the investigative
committee told Interfax.

"Members of the gang are charged with criminal offences and several
counts of murder, including that of rights activist Nikolai Girenko,"
a committee official said.

After the suspects were detained in May 2006, prosecutors folded 13
criminal cases of extremist assaults into one: assaults on Armenians
in 2003, an attempted murder of a Nigerian man in 2003, and the
murder of Kim Hen Ik, a North Korean citizen, in 2003.

Prosecutors also included the case of Gofman and Golovchenko, who
went missing in 2004, the murder of Girenko in June 2004, the murder
of a Senegalese citizen in April 2006, as well as attacks on post
offices in St. Petersburg in 2005.

Ethnographer Girenko was murdered in his apartment in St.

Petersburg on June 19, 2004. He was a leading expert on racism and
nationalism and consulted law enforcement agencies in criminal
investigations.