Hate Crime Misses Target

On the night of July 31, in the Begunitsy village in the Leningrad region, seven Chinese workers were beaten and robbed.

At 3 a.m. that night three attackers broke into a vocational school where the workers lived, and cruely beat them up and robbed them of 6,800 rubles (about ┬180), six cell phones, 18 pairs of shoes, 18 pairs of jeans, and 6 jackets.

Already the next morning one of the attackers was caught trying to sell his share of the stolen goods, and soon his accomplices were detained as well. The attackers proved to be locals, aged 18 to 29.

The "mastermind' behind the attack was a 29-year old unemployed man, who stated that the Chinese were beaten by mistake. In reality, the intention was to beat up Tadzhikis since :in [his] youth, [he] lived in Tadzhikistan and had a lot to suffer from the local population;.

A criminal case was set up based on Article 162 of the Russian Criminal Code (for robbery). The organizer of the attack is detained, while the other participants are not allowed to leave the locality.