RusData Dialine – Russian Press Digest
September 14, 2006 Thursday
Hate crime suspect turned out to be a police academy student
by Oleg Rubnikovich
The 18-year-old suspect in the racially motivated killing of an
Armenian teenager in the Moscow metro in April was a police academy
cadet, prosecutors said Wednesday. Nikita Senyukov was arrested
Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of Vigen Abramyants,
17, on the platform of Pushkinskaya metro station on April 22. "He
was a fourth-year student of a police academy under the Moscow
police," said Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the office of the
chief Moscow prosecutor.
Petrenko said Senyukov had admitted to the crime but said he acted in
self-defense after Abramyants attacked him. She said Senyukov would
be charged with murder later this week. If convicted, he faces up to
15 years in prison.
The police academy’s head, Alexei Bezyazychny, said Wednesday that
Senyukov had dropped out of the academy shortly before his arrest. He
said that Senyukov’s father is a retired senior officer from the
Interior Ministry.
Some media reports on Wednesday linked Senyukov to a group of Moscow
students accused of bombing the Cherkizovsky outdoor market in
August, killing 12 people and wounding more than 50 others.
Investigators believe the attack was motivated by hatred for natives
of the Caucasus and Asian countries who trade at the market. Four men
have been detained in connection with the attack. Petrenko, however,
denied any link between the market bombing and the metro attack.