Jury passes guilty verdict for hate crimes

ST. PETERSBURG, May 20 (Itar-Tass) -- The jury in the St. Petersburg
City Court found guilty late on Thursday 12 out of 14 members of the
so-called "Borovikov-Voevodin gang" accused of hate crimes.
The 12 members were found guilty of illegal arms possession, banditry,
murders, including the killing of scientist Nikolai Girenko who was an
expert at numerous trials of nationalists in the second biggest Russian
city.
Lawyer of Girenko's family Olga Tseitlina told Tass "it was proved
that Girenko was killed intentionally because of his professional
activities - participation as an expert in trials of extremists."
Girenko was killed by a shot through the door of his apartment.
The jury unanimously ruled that all the participants in the incident,
including gang leader Alexei Voevodin and actual perpetrator Prokhorenko
are guilty and deserve no leniency, she said adding the relatives are
satisfied with the verdict.
The jury acquitted Chechen war veteran Malyugin and Pavel Gusev who
were accused of killing Caucasian and African ethnics. They were freed in
the courtroom.