From the International Herald Tribune‘s Russian press review, June 20, 2007:
ROSSIISKAYA GAZETA
FOUR CONVICTED OF RACIAL MURDER: A St. Petersburg court sentenced four people, convicted of the racially-motivated killing of a Congolese student, to long prison terms on Wednesday. [The South African-based Independent Online reports that ‘long’ is equivalent to “between seven and 14 years” and that “two of the youths received nine-year terms with hard labour, one was sentenced to seven years and the fourth received the stiffest punishment of 14-years in jail” (Youths sentenced for killing African student, June 20, 2007]. Rolland Epossak was savagely beaten and stabbed several times in September 2005. A year ago, a different court threw out the charges against the four, but the Supreme Court ordered they be retried last march. A lawyer for the defendants maintained his clients’ innocence and called the outcome politically-motivated. The newspaper failed to mention that courts in Russia rarely convict defendants on hate crime charges, though attacks against foreigners, particularly non-white ones, are relatively high.
NOVYE IZVESTIA
VERDICT OF ‘HOOLIGANISM’ IN MURDER OF ANTI-FASCIST ACTIVIST: A Moscow court convicted three men on charges of hooliganism and assault in the murder of an anti-fascist activist last year. Alexander Shitov, Andrei Antsiferov and Vasily Reutsky – members of a neo-Nazi group – received sentences ranging from four to six and a half years for the stabbing death of Alexander Rukhin in April 2006. The lawyer representing the victim had hoped the three would be tried for murder, which would have carried longer prison terms. “The prosecution is ignoring this new type of crime in Russia,” he told the paper, speaking of hate-based attacks.
In other neo-Nazi news, Pair help break up Slovak brawl (The Vancouver Sun, June 20, 2007):
Minnesota Wild forward Branko Radivojevic and New York Rangers forward Marcel Hossa reportedly helped break up a fight involving neo-Nazis in Trencin, Slovakia, over the weekend in which one man was stabbed. Slovakia’s Pravda Daily reported Monday that a man was being attacked by more than 10 neo-Nazi supporters when Radivojevic, Hossa and another man came to the victim’s defence. The attackers then fled. Radivojevic and Hossa reportedly took the man to a hospital, where he underwent surgery and was recovering.
And finally, local neo-Nazi groups Blood & Honour Australia and the Southern Cross Hammerskins have announced the partial line-up for this year’s Ian Stuart Donaldson memorial gig, to take place on October 13 at an undisclosed location somewhere in Melbourne: Bail Up!, Fortress, Quick & the Dead and special international guests. Anyone interested in sampling Fortress may purchase a copy of The Bell Tolls, a 3 track CD-EP from Snapshot Records for only $10. It includes a cover version of “Hate Session” by White Noise; White Noise being one of the pioneering neo-Nazi oi! bands to come out of the UK whose The Final Solution LP contains the classic “Sieg Heil We’re Back Again”. You can also purchase Return to Asgard, the very best in Viking rock ‘n’ roll performed by Newcastle-based Blood Red Eagle — who most recently played a gig in Wellington to celebrate Adolf Hitler’s birthday and, of course, also played last year’s ISD gig at The Birmy — for just $15; and rest assured that at least some of that money will have helped B&H organise in Australia.
