VORONEZH, January 25 (RIA Novosti) - A court in the Voronezh Region in southwest Russia sentenced four teenagers found guilty of murdering a Vietnamese national in April 2006 to four and a half to seven years in prison, an official of the Voronezh Prosecutor's Office said Thursday.
Seven teenagers aged 13 to 16 attacked a Vietnamese national living in the town of Ostrogozhsk, in the Voronezh Region, on April 6, 2006. He was hospitalized and died of his injuries three days later.
The Ostrogozhsk Inter-District Prosecutor's Office opened a criminal case on Section 4 of Article 111 of Russia's Criminal Code, on "Inflicting serious bodily injury leading to death," which was later re-qualified into more serious charges, including race-hate motives.
Court hearings are closed because the defendants in the case are juveniles.
Three of the defendants were absolved of criminal responsibility because they were under the age of 14 when the crime was committed.
A recent string of attacks on foreign students has cast a shadow on Voronezh, which is located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Moscow and has traditionally been a popular destination with foreign undergraduates interested in studying in Russia.
In October 2005, an Albanian national studying at Voronezh University told police he was beaten up near his dormitory and had his mobile phone and ID card stolen. In January 2006, two men from Sudan were allegedly assaulted at one of the city's bus stops, but reportedly sustained no serious injuries.
Routine attacks by skinheads and youth gangs on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features have also been reported in other Russian cities.
Last year, a jury in St. Petersburg acquitted all 17 defendants in the case of the murder of another Vietnamese student in Russia's second city in October 2004, but found nine of them guilty of other crimes.
The Vietnamese student was stabbed in October 2004 in St. Petersburg by a group of drunken teenagers out of allegedly race-hate motives.
