Moscow courts to sentence hate crime youngsters.

MOSCOW, October 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Two Moscow courts are scheduled on
Friday to pass the sentences to a group of ethnic Caucasians who killed a
Russian football fan last year and to a group of Russian ethnics who
rioted in downtown Manezh Square near the Kremlin in protest.
The Moscow City Court is to sentence Aslan Cherkesov who shot and
killed Spartak Moscow football fan Yegor Sviridov in December last year,
as well as his five accomplices.
The jury found all the six men guilty and prosecutors asked to
sentence Cherkesov to 23 years in maximum security prison and his five
accomplices to eight years each.
The murder triggered unprecedented ethnic violence in Manezh Square
five days later and on Friday the Tverskoy district court of Moscow is to
pass sentences to five accused activists in the riots.
Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Belarussian national and Other
Russia movement activist Igor Berezyuk to eight years in prison. Ruslan
Khubayev and Kirill Unchuk, both Other Russia members, face six and five
years respectively. Alexander Kozevin and Leonid Panin may get 4.5 and 4
years respectively.
They are all accused of calling for mass riots, instigating ethnic
hatred, violence against police, and involving minors in a crime.
Berezyuk admitted only violence against a riot policeman, but said it
was self-defense. His lawyer asked the judge to sentence his client to
nine months which the man has already spent in the investigation prison.
Panin also admitted violence against a riot policeman and even
apologized to him in court. The lawyers asked the judge not to deprive
Panin and Kozevin of freedom.
Lawyers of Khubayev and Unchuk called to acquit their clients.