23:10, 18 August 2009

In Volgograd Region, attackers on Gipsy camp sentenced to 4.5-11 years of imprisonment

On August 17, 2009, in the Volgograd Region, the court sentenced a group of eight persons who attacked a Gipsy camp in April 2006 in the city of Volzhskiy. Two persons were killed in that attack. The defendants were sentenced to imprisonment for the terms from 4.5 to 11 years.

Let us note here that the board of jurymen passed an accusatory verdict back in early June of 2008; however later, Tatiana Pavlova, advocate of the affected party, said in her conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the trial was deliberately protracted by the defendants and their advocates.

In the course of the judicial investigation only one of the defendants confessed of being a skinhead, the others denied their belonging to any organization. The two defendants, sentenced to 11 years of imprisonment, will serve their term in a high security colony. One of the defendants was acquitted from criminal prosecution because of expiry of the limitation period, as reported by the SOVA Centre.