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Prosecutor: Slayings Of Foreigners Solved

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  • Prosecutor: Slayings Of Foreigners Solved

    Prosecutor: Slayings Of Foreigners Solved
    By Galina Stolyarova, STAFF WRITER

    The St Petersburg Times
    #1057, Friday, April 1, 2005

    NEWS

    City Prosecutor Sergei Zaitsev on Wednesday announced that the
    murders of two foreigners last year have been solved, and has stated
    unequivocally that the motive was racial hatred.

    He said the suspects in the killing of Khursheda Sultanova, nine,
    who was stabbed to death on Feb. 9, and those who murdered Vietnamese
    student Vu An Tuan on Oct. 13 have been charged. Both murders produced
    reactions of horror, fear and condemnation from city leaders and
    the public.

    "Seven of Khursheda's attackers have been charged with hooliganism,
    and one - with the racially motivated murder of a helpless person,"
    Zaitsev said. "The guy who is charged with the murder was 14 years
    old when the crime was committed."

    Fourteen youths face charges over the slaying of Tuan near a student
    hostel on Vasilyevsky Island.

    The prosecutor refused to give any names.

    The investigation revealed that the defendants, who were aged between
    14 and 21, had committed other crimes against foreigners and Russian
    nationals, Zaitsev said.

    "Five new criminal cases have already been opened," the prosecutor
    added.

    Hooliganism is the usual charge against those who attack foreign
    citizens in St. Petersburg, with law enforcement agencies apparently
    reluctant to level more serious charges when racist motives are
    alleged.

    The city prosecutor's office has been criticized by human rights
    advocates for ignoring such motives when witnesses report that
    attackers have chanted phrases such as "Russia for the Russians."

    Zaitsev acknowledged that the city has problems with extremist groups,
    but said it should not be exaggerated.

    "In many cases, crimes against foreigners and citizens of former
    Soviet states have common, domestic, rather than racial or nationalist
    motives," the prosecutor said.

    Governor Valentina Matviyenko made an enthusiastic statement Wednesday,
    saying that "all ethnically motivated crimes in the city have been
    solved."

    "Our city, which is known to the country and to the world for its
    intelligentsia and tolerance, has several times been shocked by
    horrible murders on racial grounds," Matviyenko said in her annual
    televised speech. "We are not going to tolerate the escapades of
    extremists. [...] I firmly say that we will confront all manifestations
    of xenophobia, anti-Semitism and discrimination."

    But some experts say it is much too early to trumpet
    successes. Matviyenko's statement sounds overblown to human rights
    advocates, who note that the murder of Nikolai Girenko, the country's
    leading expert on ethnic crimes, who was gunned down on the doorway
    of his apartment on June 19, 2004, hasn't been solved.

    Vladimir Lukin, the federal ombudsman for human rights who released his
    2004 report on Thursday, expressed concern about growing nationalism
    and chauvinism in the country.

    On Wednesday, Zaitsev also announced the start of a new investigation
    against an extremist group.

    Eight people have been detained in connection with the activities
    of Mad Crowd, a group of young nationalists who have been attacking
    natives of Armenia, Azerbaijan, China and Korea.

    The group's organizer has gone missing, Zaitsev said.

    Earlier this week web site Fontanka.ru reported that 15 Arab students
    were planning to drop out of their universities in St. Petersburg
    and leave the city in protest over the regular attacks on them.

    The publication quoted Gannam Mohamad, head of the Union of Arab
    students, as saying that "the situation has gotten to the point when
    the students can only guess whether they will make it to the hostel
    each night."

    But on Thursday, Fontanka said Mohamad denied the earlier statement.

    "There is no mass exodus of Arab students from the city, and there
    won't be," he was quoted as saying in a letter to Alexander Viktorov,
    head of the city committee for Science and Higher Education.

    "The problem is currently in the process of being resolved positively,"
    Mohamad added.
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