Prosecutor Demands Only 4 Years of Imprisonment for Mad Crowd Leader

Hearings on the case of Ruslan Melnik, the probable leader of the Mad Crowd grouping were held in the federal court of Pushkin district of Saint Petersburg. As reported by the Agency of Journalist Investigations, the state prosecutor insists on finding Ruslan Melnik guilty on all the accusation items except calls to enticement of national hatred through media. This episode, according to the prosecution, has not been proved. On the remaining points the prosecutor demanded 4 years of imprisonment. The other members of the Mad Crowd were sentenced to 2-3 years of imprisonment in December 2005. According to the investigators, Mad Crowd was formed for committing assaults on foreign citizens. The grouping is accused of assault on McDonald’s in the Nevsky Avenue in April 2003, beating of a native of Azerbaijan and Chinese citizens in October 2003 and assault on an Armenian citizen.