Group of underage Russian skinheads sentenced for building 'new paradise'

The Moscow City Court brought down a sentence on the controversial case filed against a group of teenagers. The teenagers were arrested in the course of the investigation of the murder of a well-known chess player from the Republic of Yakutia, Sergei Nikolayev. The chess player was brutally murdered a year ago. Thirteen young men found themselves in the dock, nearly all of them underage individuals.

Photo: Group of underage Russian skinheads sentenced for building 'new paradise'

Group of underage Russian skinheads sentenced for building 'new paradise'

It turned out during the investigation that the members of the group were involved in another crime, as well as more than a dozen of other attacks committed against the people of non-Russian appearance.

All the accused were found guilty on all counts and were sentenced to different terms in prison from three to ten years. The only young man aged 18 at the moment of the crime was considered to be the leader of the nationalist group and was thus sentenced to the longest prison term.

The youngest members of the group of skinheads apologized to their victims. Many others did not even speak about remorse and were rather impudent in their behavior at court. When the judge read out the sentence (ten years of colony) to the group leader, Ivan Kolinichenko, his associates openly congratulated him. When they were convoyed out of the court room, some of them yelled: “We will build the new paradise, Sieg Heil!”

The investigation of the controversial case began on October 20, 2007 , when chess player Sergei Nikolayev, a native of Yakutia, was beaten to death. The Moscow police originally believed that the chess player had fallen a victim of an incidental street fight. It became known later that the man was killed by nationalists, who had been rampaging that night attacking people of non-Russian looks on their way.

According to investigators, the young men agreed to meet and conduct an action that day after a game of football. When they saw Sergei Nikolayev passing them by, they began to bully him. The man did not pay attention to them and continued walking, but the youngsters assaulted them and stabbed him several times.

Afterwards, the young men proceeded along the street and came across a janitor, a native of Uzbekistan , Galib Kabilov. He was also brutally beaten and stabbed. Several other people of non-Russian appearance were hospitalized in Moscow with various injuries that night too.

The teens were filming all of their deeds on their cell phone cameras to post and share them online.

Thirteen people – nearly all of them college students aged between 14-17 years – were detained. Most of them came from well-to-do families.