Eight people suspected of stabbing a nine-year-old Tajik girl dead and seriously wounding her father and 11-year-old cousin in the centre of Russia's second city Saint Petersburg have been found guilty, but only of hooliganism.
By
AFP

Source:
AFP
23 Mar 2006 - 12:00 AM  UPDATED 22 Aug 2013 - 12:18 PM

The jury found one of the suspects not guilty of the crime, but guilty of "hooliganism unconnected to the murder" of Khursheda Sultanova in 2004.

Others were found guilty of hooliganism "involving objects used as weapons," said officials quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.

The jury also considered that the only suspect who pleaded guilty deserved lenience, said officials.

Yusuf Sultanov, 35, a migrant worker from Tajikistan, the poorest former Soviet republic, and his nephew Alabir and daughter Khursheda were attacked by a dozen young men armed with baseball bats, metal chains and knives in February 2004.

The assailants fled the scene and the girl bled to death before an ambulance arrived.

Xenophobic attacks occur regularly in Moscow and other large Russian cities, usually targeting African and Asian students, as well as diplomats and traders from the Caucasus region.