Murderer gets 11 years

A court hearing of a case of the murder of two Meskhetian Turk girls occurred in the Krasnodar Territorial Court on 24 June. Based on the verdict returned by the jury, the court sentenced Cossack ataman Nikolai Drozdov to 11 years in hard labour camp.

Two sisters, Narmina Lomanov, 26, and Nargilia Akhmedov, 19, were killed in Russkoye, Krymsk district, Krasnodar territory, on 26 December 2004. Nikolai Drozdov who witnesses say had more then once spoke very negatively about Meskhetian Turks living in the village and even publicly threatened violence shot them dead with a hunting gun.

The girls' mother and brother remained discontent with the sentence though. Sarvar Tedorov, Meskhetian Turk leader in the Krasnodar territory, says the court did not take into account the measure of Drozdov's criminal liability for purchasing and storing live cartridges. Besides, the court qualified the murder as common, but not as ethnically-motivated. Sarvar Tedorov is therefore going to dispute the court decision, a release of the Novorossiisk Committee on Human Rights says.

• Independent journalist pressurised, racist murder thought 'deserving lenience'

More about minorities in North Caucasus:

• Human Rights Practices in Russia's North Caucasus - 2004

More about discrimination in North Caucasus:

• Human Rights Practices in Russia's North Caucasus - 2004

More about Meskhetian Turks:

• The Condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory and the Territorial Government Migration Policy
• The condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory, February 2004
• The Condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory, January 2004
• The Condition of Meskhetian Turks in the Krasnodar Territory, November 2003