Kacharava murder trial starts in St. Petersburg

The trial of a high profile case started in St.Petersburg on 23 May with seven young men, three of them minors, accused of attacking 20-year-old anti-fascist musician Timur Kacharava, and his friend Maxim Zgibai on 13 November 2005.

A group of ten young people were involved in the murder of Kacharava who was stabbed five times in the neck and died shortly afterwards. Zgibai was also stabbed and seriously wounded. Kacharava was a well-known activist and opponent of xenophobia in Russia as well as a supporter of the homeless. It is widely believed that he was targeted because of this work.

All seven people on trial are accused of hooliganism and incitement of ethnic hatred but only one of them is also charged with murder - with a motive of hooliganism - and attempted murder. The alleged organiser of the crime remains on the wanted list and a separate case has been initiated against him. On the first day of the court hearings, some of the accused admitted partial guilt and the minors protested innocence, saying that they were only watching.

Journalists and anti-fascists are observing the trial. The Antifascist Information Group has announced that anyone needing photographs of Timur Kacharava for publication can contact it by writing to 13november2005@gmail.com.

Timur Kacharava is just one of a growing list of anti-fascists murdered and attacked by nazis in Russia in recent years. On 19 June 2004, in St. Petersburg, Nikolai Girenko, an expert on right-wing extremism, was gunned down in his apartment. On 16 April 2006, in Moscow, Alexander Ryukhin, an anti-fascist activist, was stabbed to death on his way to a punk concert. On 22 December last year, in Moscow, Tigran, an anti-fascist activist, found a bomb on his staircase and on 27 March 2007, in Izhevsk, Stanislav Korepanov, a supporter of anti-fascists, was beaten by nazis, sustaining injuries from which he died a few days later.