The last free member of violent Yekaterinburg-based neo-Nazi group "Volkssturm" has been hit with a 10-year prison sentence for at least 11 attacks, including two murders, on ethnic minorities.
Defendant Ilya Dorokhov's alleged crimes were committed in 2007, but police only managed to detain him in 2014 after he'd been placed on an international wanted list, the Sverdlovsk Regional Court said Monday in a statement detailing its ruling.
"The court determined that the 26-year-old defendant was involved in seven attempted murders, two murders and [a few] robberies. In total, Dorokhov participated in the commission of at least 11 'actions.' That is precisely what the participants in the extremist group called their attacks," the court said in its statement. "The victims were individuals with distinctly non-Slavic appearances."
Dorokhov now faces 10 years in a maximum security prison, and he has also been ordered to pay 100,000 rubles ($1,500) to one of the victims for moral damages. The verdict has not yet entered into force, however, and Dorokhov may appeal.
Volkssturm carried out a series of attacks and robberies targeting ethnic minorities, often videotaping the violence and then uploading the footage to the Internet. Investigators offered evidence of at least three murders by members of the group, as well as eight attempted murders, the Kommersant newspaper reported. They are also believed to have carried out more than 20 attacks on migrant workers.
The other 11 members of Dorokhov's group had already been convicted and sentenced prior to his sentencing Monday.
The Yekaterinburg group was named after a battalion of the Third Reich set up in 1944 at the request of Adolf Hitler. Hitler's Volkssturm conscripted all males between the ages of 13 and 60 who were not already serving as part of an active military unit.
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