On May 24, 2006, in the City Court of St. Petersburg, a jury began considering the merits of the criminal case on the murder of Epassac Roland Franza, a citizen of the Republic of the Congo.

Recall that in the dock are four Petersburgers aged 17-23 (Viktor Orlov, Yuri Gromov, Andrey Olenev and Andrey Gerasimov), who are accused of murder motivated by ethnic hatred.

During the hearing, the indictment was read and several witnesses were questioned.

On July 20, 2006, the City Court of St. Petersburg held a hearing on this case, at which four defendants made their last statements before the jury. They declared their complete innocence in this crime, because they have an alibi, and no traces of blood were found on their clothes, and the law enforcement agencies could not find the weapons of crime (knife and stone), and not a single motive for the racial crime none of them had: all three assured that they did not harbor any hostility towards people of other races and nations. However, A. Olenev said that he could not simply hit the victim with a stone in the forehead of the victim in a throw from his left hand, since that "at that moment was surrounded by others."

On July 25, 2006, a jury acquitted those accused of murder.

Sources

Accused of murdering a Congolese appeared before a jury (St. Petersburg) // IA Regnum. 2006. May 24.
Accused of murdering Congolese say "last words" (St. Petersburg) // IA Regnum. 2006. 24 July.

The trial for the murder of a Congolese student began in St. Petersburg