Russians sentenced for race hate killing

MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) -- Nine Russians from a neo-Nazi group that called itself "Simbirsk White Power" were jailed yesterday for up to 22 years in connection with the murder of an African, investigators said.

A court in the central Russian city of Ulyanovsk convicted three of the group's members of killing the Cameroonian man, named by Russian investigators as Etizok Ndobe Ernest, in August 2008.

Ernest, who had worked as DJ with the nickname Black James, was attacked in a city square as he returned from work. His killers stabbed him repeatedly and slit his throat, an investigator told the Kommersant newspaper.

A total of 74 people were killed in racist attacks in Russia in 2009, a drop from the 120 people killed in 2008, according to the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, a group that tracks hate crimes.