The Moskovsky District Court of Saint Petersburg has handed down verdicts to the alleged members of a criminal group dubbed the ‘Azerbaijani mafia’ by the media. Among those convicted were minors from Azerbaijan and Daghestan.
In total, 16 members of the group were sentenced in a trial held behind closed doors due to the presence of minors among the accused. Most were charged with inciting national hatred and hooliganism involving violence.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, starting in 2023, the group randomly attacked passersby in Saint Petersburg, targeting mainly ethnic Russians and Uzbeks.
‘The defendants attacked young people aged between 14 and 21 without cause, used violence against them, and posted videos accompanied by captions expressing the superiority of one nationality’, a court press release read.
Three members were natives of Daghestan: Farrukh Ibragimov, Ramazan Khalaev, and Emil Khalaev. The court found that they recorded assaults on passersby of Uzbek and Russian ethnicity and published the footage on an open Telegram channel titled Zhizn Brodyagi (‘Life of a Vagabond’).
In Monday’s court decision, Ibragimov and both Khalaevs were sentenced to four years in prison. As a minor, Ibragimov will serve his sentence in a juvenile correctional facility, while the Khalaevs will serve their terms in general regime penal colonies.
Among the other convicted individuals was the group’s alleged leader, Tural Mamedov, as well as several other participants originally from Azerbaijan. According to investigators, Mamedov orchestrated the violent attacks and promoted ‘the superiority of one nationality over another’ both publicly and in private Telegram channels. After the videos were published on social media, Mamedov fled Russia, but was later detained and extradited back from Azerbaijan.
In response to the verdicts, defence lawyers called the sentences excessively harsh, vowing to challenge the rulings.
Aytan Farhadova
