Russian judge killed in Moscow, police cite race hate motives
Eduard Chuvashov, who conducted a number of high-profile trials of ultra-nationalists, has been gunned down in the center of Moscow as he was leaving his apartment.
The judge worked for the Moscow city court and specialized in especially serious crimes, including hate crimes. Chuvashov was many times threatened by the members of nationalistic groups, who used their websites to call on followers to kill the judge.
The involvement of nationalistic groups is being viewed as one of the main avenues of inquiry for the investigation, reports Interfax with reference to a source in Moscow law-enforcement body.
This February, Chuvashov sentenced members of the “White Wolves” nationalistic group to prison terms. Nine people were found guilty of 11 murderers, mostly of citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. The nationalists were sentenced to between 6.5 and 23 years in prison.
Chuvashov conducted the trial of a nationalistic group headed by Artur Ryno and Pavel Skachevsky. In early April, the leaders of the gang were sentenced to 10 years each in prison. The court took into consideration that Ryno and Skachevsky were underage at the time they committed the crimes.
The trials on the members of the Ryno-Skachevsky group started in January 2009. They were accused of hate crimes committed in 2006-07. The nationalists killed people of non-Slavic appearance and uploaded the videos online. In total, they were convicted of committing 20 murders and 12 counts of attempted murder. The members received sentences of between 6 and 20 years in prison.
Last year, Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who participated in the trial over a Russian colonel who killed a Chechen girl, was murdered in the center of Moscow in broad daylight. People who have been charged with the murder have links in Russian nationalist groups. The murder came shortly after the accused, Colonel Budanov, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison, was released on parole.
“Though we can’t say for sure, it’s not ruled out that these ultra-nationalists or fascist groups are trying to send a message to the authorities, because the authorities are now taking a harder line with these kinds of race killings,” says Tim Wall, editor-in-chief for the Moscow News newspaper.
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