Fascism did not pass

Those accused of murdering a nine-year-old Tajik girl were convicted of hooliganism

St. Petersburg teenager Roman Kazakov, accused of murdering a nine-year-old Tajik girl motivated by national hatred, received five and a half years in an educational colony. This is what the St. Petersburg City Court ruled yesterday, which officially, after the jury’s verdict a week ago, was forced to state that Kazakov did not commit murder, and that the act of attacking a Tajik family should be qualified as ordinary hooliganism. The remaining six participants in the crime received, according to the court verdict, from one and a half to three years in prison. At the same time, the defendants' lawyers were dissatisfied and will appeal the verdict.

However, the prosecutor’s office has not lost hope of getting such a “merciful” verdict overturned. Meanwhile, skinheads continue to rampage in St. Petersburg. Immediately after the jury’s verdict, another nine-year-old mulatto girl became a victim of the Nazis, who was stabbed to death by unknown assailants in the entrance of her own home. At the same time, a “Manual on Street Terror” appeared on the Internet with detailed instructions on how to “hunt for violators of white order.” And in the city court, a jury is being formed in another case of the murder of a Vietnamese student committed by the Nazis.

The verdict against a 16-year-old accused of murdering Khursheda Sultonova motivated by national hatred and six other alleged participants in the attack began to fall apart in court even at the stage of the jury hearing. A week earlier, they considered it unproven that 16-year-old Roman Kazakov had repeatedly stabbed a child in an alley near Yusupovsky Garden, where thugs waylaid a Tajik family returning from the skating rink. Then, on November 9, 2004, the accused of murder just recently turned 14 years old (the age at which criminal responsibility begins). Perhaps this, as well as the absence of the most important evidence among the evidence - a bloody knife and the boy's clothes - played a role in the jury's decision. Kazakov and six more of his accomplices received sentences only for hooliganism.

True, the court nevertheless demonstrated its special attitude towards the former murder accused, apparently hinting at its disagreement with the jury's verdict. Kazakov was sentenced to five and a half years in an educational colony, which for a teenager of his age is almost the maximum term under Art. 213 of the Criminal Code - “hooliganism”. The remaining participants in the bloody tragedy in the center of St. Petersburg were sentenced to sentences ranging from one and a half to three years. At the same time, the defendants' lawyers, who insisted on suspended sentences, promised to appeal the verdict.

Along with the murder charge, the mention of the racist attitude of the “hooligans” also disappeared from the verdict. “Experiencing hatred towards persons of non-Russian nationality, having a negative attitude towards them, that is, acting on the motive of national hatred, deliberately with the aim of killing a girl who, due to her age, could not resist and was obviously in a helpless state, one of the defendants inflicted no less than seven stabs from which she died,” the indictment said. But in the jury’s verdict, the motive of racial hatred could not be preserved, since, according to the law, only murder, but not hooliganism, can be committed due to national hatred.

The prosecutor's office said last week that it considers the main defendant's guilt of murder proven, and therefore is appealing his acquittal in this regard. As for the terms imposed by the court for hooliganism, both the state prosecutor and the lawyer of the Tajik family, Natella Ponomareva, were satisfied with them. “They received a worthy punishment for committing socially dangerous acts. The terms are quite strict, practically the longest that minors can receive,” said Ms. Ponomareva.

Nevertheless, the Jewish religious community of St. Petersburg, which was repeatedly the target of fascist attacks, is dejected by the verdict. “The jury’s opinion reflects the opinion of the entire society, and what happened is further evidence that our society is not tolerant enough,” her representatives said. Other observers say the verdict left many more questions than answers. It is still not established who killed, and also - what is perhaps more significant - who incited the youths to attack the Tajiks with knives and rods. Moreover, with such rage that the child’s father simply did not have time to do anything, and the cousin of the deceased escaped from the “hooligans” by hiding under the car.

Meanwhile, the prosecutor’s office is convinced of the existence of three still “unidentified persons” who approached the teenagers who were pumped up on beer in the Yusupov Garden and invited them to “hunt monkeys.” The last phrase was not taken from the text of the verdict - no one knows what the thugs and those who ordered the murder talked about among themselves in the last minutes of Khursheda’s life. But this is exactly how, and not without pride in their craft, St. Petersburg Nazis call murder and robbery in a special memo “Manual on Street Terror,” which was not only published on racist sites, but was also confiscated in printed form from skinheads by the police. The Nazis call themselves “patrol,” their victims “animals,” “ugly monkeys,” and, in a ratio of no less than three to one, they advise “turning the body into mush.”

As a field for “guerrilla warfare,” as its authors call this Internet call for genocide, it is recommended to choose “vacant areas near dorms, areas adjacent to markets, unguarded places of residence of foreign students.” Much attention is paid to methods of dealing with the victim, murder weapons, correct clothing that will allow you not to be recognized in the crowd, as well as methods of camouflage and escaping from the scene. Law enforcement agencies in St. Petersburg note that many recent attacks and murders of people with “non-Russian” appearance were committed as if according to the points of this monstrous manual. That is why the “Benefit” became the subject of close attention of the prosecutor’s office, which saw signs of a crime under Art. 282-2 of the Criminal Code, and opened a criminal case. The actions of the authors of the terrorist “manual” are qualified as “public calls for extremist activities using the media via the Internet computer network.” It is possible that the developers of this “textbook” could shed light on who exactly set the teenagers against the Tajik family.

However, given the verdict and yesterday's court verdict, one may fear that if this yet another “racist” case goes to trial, the perpetrators will again receive leniency. Another thing is also possible - court hearings will be delayed, as is now happening with the case of the murder of Vietnamese student Vu Anh Tuan committed in the fall of 2004. The City Court was supposed to form a jury on Tuesday, but almost all of the 64 candidates recused themselves. The next selection is scheduled for April 18.

Dmitry ANDREEV, St. Petersburg