Five students accused of hate murders in Moscow

The prosecutor Office of the Moscow region took the case of five students to the Moscow court. The five are accused of the six criminal assaults motivated by the national hatred. The case will be tried by the jury panel, the Utro.Ru website reported.

Five Kyrgyz, Tajik, Armenian citizens and one Asian looking Russian citizen became victims of the violent youth gang from February till April 2007. Two persons died right there and then. The other three were heavily wounded.

The gang brought together five students aged between 16 and 19. Young people considered they were a part of the skinhead movement and stuck with the Nazi ideology. During the house search the police seized papers and video tapes of extremists nature. The investigation reveled that the young people concurrently surfed the Internet for the best methods and tools to commit a crime and evade the punishment.

"The members of the gang deliberately sought Asian-looking persons and assaulted them with axes, hammers or knives. The juvenile delinquents wore gloves to leave no finger prints," the Procurator Office reported.

The gang was liquidated in April 2007. Depending on the level of involvement in crimes the murderers were indicted of instigating of racial hatred, humiliating human dignity, mass murder.