MOSCOW - Six Russian skinheads who murdered a 19-year-old ethnic Korean who was Russia's national champion in karate were sentenced here Wednesday to heavy jail terms ranging from eight to 19 years, a court source said.
Yakov Kan was killed on November 15, 2003 after the skinheads who were aboard a commuter train travelling between Moscow and the suburban town of Elektrostal began shouting nationalist slogans and became aggressive with passengers of non-Slav physical appearance.
Kan tried to defend himself but was overwhelmed by the skinheads who used knives and broken glass bottles to attack him.
Two other people, one from Azerbaijan and the other a Russian who was apparently mistaken by the skinheads for a Moldovan, were seriously wounded in the attack.
Racially-motivated attacks, occasionally fatal ones, have multiplied in recent years in Russia. They usually target people from the Caucasus region and former Soviet republics in Central Asia, but foreigners from the Asia-Pacific region and Africa are also sometimes attacked.
05/11/2005 14:08 GMT