Guest-worker brutally slays pregnant woman in Moscow

The Moscow police arrested a 23-year-old national of Uzbekistan (an Asian republic of the former USSR) in the center of Moscow. The man was charged with the murder of a pregnant woman. He strangled her with his belt, the police said. “The unemployed man tried to rob the woman, but she showed resistance to him,” a police officer said.

Photo: Guest-worker brutally slays pregnant woman in Moscow

Moscow law-enforcement agencies say that they are expecting an outburst of lawlessness among migrants against the background of the current economic crisis.

Passers-by found the body of the 32-year-old Muscovite on January 13. Forensic experts said that the woman had died of the mechanical asphyxia – she was strangled. The murderer was dragging the victim on the ground for a long time. The woman’s clothes were all covered with dirty snow and blood. The criminal finally strangled the woman with his belt.

The woman was eight months pregnant. She already had a 10-year-old daughter.

The 23-year-old native of Uzbekistan, named only as Urmonov, was arrested January 21 in Moscow’s center. Urmonov was living in Moscow with no registration and had no fulltime job, a source from the Moscow law-enforcement agencies told Strana.ru.

“The murderer has been detained. The belt, which he used as a murder weapon, has been withdrawn from him. He may face up to 15 years in jail,” a police officer said.

Moscow law-enforcement agencies say that they are expecting an outburst of lawlessness among nonresidents. Many of them come to Moscow for construction works. However, many constructions were stopped because of the financial crisis, and the guest-workers became unemployed.

“The number of the unemployed may grow in Russia to 340,000 people. It will obviously affect the migrants. Many of them will be fired, and all this will lead to public unrest,” the director of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky said.

The unemployed migrants will thus be forced to commit criminal actions, such as robbery, for instance. Actions of protest organized by the unemployed Russians will grip the country, whereas the unemployed foreign nationals will increase the level of criminality, deputy minister for internal affairs, Mikhail Sukhodolsky said.

Fifteen hate crimes based on aggressive xenophobia were registered in Moscow during the first two weeks of January alone: ten people were killed and nine were injured.

Financial problems generate violence against Muscovites on the part of guest-workers. The number of crimes committed by non-Muscovites increased by 22 percent last year.

Strana.ru