SKINHEADS ADMIT TO KILLING 20
The Moscow Times
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Russia
The leaders of a skinhead gang charged with hate crimes admitted
Wednesday to committing 20 racially motivated murders and attempting
12 more, Interfax reported.
Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky went on trial with seven others
Wednesday at the Moscow City Court for purportedly carrying out a
series of racist murders and other crimes in Moscow, an unidentified
participant in the trial told Interfax.
The proceedings are closed to the public, but the source told Interfax
that Ryno and Skachevsky "fully admitted their guilt" in the crimes
they are charged with.
City prosecutors have accused Ryno, Skachevsky and seven other
defendants — aged 15 to 22 — of committing 20 racist murders and 12
other racially motivated attacks from August 2006 through October 2007.
Three other defendants admitted partial guilt, while two others —
Svetlana Avakumova, 22, and Denis Lavrinenkov, 17 — pled not guilty,
the source told Interfax.
It was unclear how the remaining two defendants pled.
Ryno, a student at an icon painting school, has told investigators that
he began his murder spree on Aug. 21, 2006, the same day a bomb killed
13 people at Cherkizovsky Market, according to national media reports.
Ryno and Skachevsky were arrested in April 2007 on suspicion of killing
Armenian businessman Karen Abramyan. Abramyan, 46, was stabbed 20
times in southwest Moscow and died in the hospital.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
