ST. PETERSBURG, August 7 (RIA Novosti) - A court in St. Petersburg sentenced Tuesday four people convicted of hooliganism and inciting racial hatred, in the violent murder of a young antifascist activist, to between two and 12 years in prison.
Antifascist student Timur Kacharava, 20, was murdered in November 2005 in St Petersburg, when he and his friend Maxim Zgibai were attacked by a group of men aged 17-20 as they stood outside a bookstore in the city center. Kacharava was repeatedly stabbed and died at the scene of the attack, Zgibai, who was also knifed, was hospitalized in a serious condition.
Last week a jury in St. Petersburg found all seven defendants guilty in the case. The jury ruled that defendant Andrei Shabalin was guilty of killing Kacharava and attempting to kill Zgibai, while the other defendants were found guilty of hooliganism and inciting racial hatred.
The court handed Shabalin a 12-year-prison sentence, while three defendants in the case were given suspended sentences.
Routine attacks by skinheads and young gangs on foreigners and people with non-Slavic features have been reported across Russia in recent years. But authorities have been generally reluctant to treat the attacks as race-hate crimes, portraying them instead as acts of hooliganism.
