A court in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg sentenced a man to eight years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a Gabonese student last year, local media reported Monday.
Earlier this month, state prosecutors had requested an 11-year sentence for Daniil Fomin, who was charged with murdering François Ndjelassili in August 2023.
Ndjelassili had moved to Russia several years before to study economics at Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg.
According to eyewitness accounts, Fomin and a friend approached Ndjelassili after he was seen flirting with a Russian woman at a Burger King. Following an argument, the men went outside and began to fight, and witnesses reported that the Russian men used racial slurs before Ndjelassili was eventually stabbed to death.
During the trial, Fomin pleaded not guilty, claiming he acted in self-defense.
Unconfirmed reports suggested Fomin may have had connections to a white supremacist group, and a closed neo-Nazi channel on Telegram announced a fundraiser to help him pay for his legal expenses following his arrest last year.
The case also drew attention to the conduct of two traffic police officers, who faced backlash for their failure to intervene in the stabbing. Video footage from the scene showed officers saying, “there’s no need to break anything up” and “it’s not our problem.”
When the officers eventually drove toward the fight, one expressed concern about facing consequences for their inaction. By the time they stepped out of their vehicle, it was too late to save Ndjelassili.
The two officers were later fired for misconduct.
Following Ndjelassili’s death, a friend told The Moscow Times that the tragedy had left African students in Yekaterinburg shaken, highlighting the racism and violence faced by people of color in Russia.
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