Dmitri Bogotich was convinced he would be free forever. The ease with which he managed to slip out of Israel, and the law enforcement authorities' complete indifference to his escape and his new life, allowed the man described as "the first neo-Nazi soldier in Israel" to feel safe in his new home in the heart of Moscow.
Bogotich felt so secure that he focused on his law studies there, as if he was not the defendant in one of the most severe indictments ever filed in Israel.
Yesterday, however, the Justice Ministry confirmed that Bogotich had been arrested by Interpol in Kyrgyzstan, at the airport near that nation's capital.
When I met him in March of 2008 in Moscow, he was careful but also confident that the authorities in Russia would not extradite him to Israel, even if he was arrested. When he is finally extradited to Israel, Bogotich will be tried like the other members of his neo-Nazi gang - Patrol 36 - which terrorized the streets of Tel Aviv from 2006 to 2007.
The gang would go out a little after midnight and find a victim to abuse. Drunk with power and alcohol, they would kick, punch and break things - documenting everything on cell-phone cameras. They selected their victims on the basis of neo-Nazi propaganda: dark-skinned people, foreign workers, drug addicts, homosexuals and anyone else who was in their way.
Eight members of the gang were arrested in 2007; Bogotich, who is suspected of being the gang leader, was the only one who disappeared. By day he served in the Israel Defense Forces as a guard, and by night, according to the indictment, he would lynch people based on their ethnicity.
On July 18, 2007, police investigators went to the apartment he shared with his mother in Tel Aviv and brought him in for questioning. By the next day, he had already fled the country.
When I met with him eight months later, he said he did not have to work very hard to evade the authorities. The day after his questioning, he claimed, he managed to lower his military profile and was immediately released from the army. He then got on a flight to Athens.
While the Israeli authorities began to consider issuing a warrant to prevent him from leaving the country, Bogotich had already been in Moscow for some time. According to Russian law, the authorities do not extradite Russian citizens who have committed crimes in other countries. Truth be told, Israel did not even seek his extradition.
No one involved in the case in Israel knew where Bogotich was, and in practice no one bothered to look for him. When the investigative television show "Uvda" ("Fact" ) decided to try a little harder than the police, we managed to locate him fairly quickly in Moscow - free and happy.
Haaretz
Friday, 10 December 2010
Halesowen Tory suspended after racist joke gaffe (UK)
A Halesowen Conservative councillor is out in the cold after e-mailing a racist joke to every Dudley councillor.
Hayley Green and Cradley South councillor Ken Turner suspended his party membership yesterday after an almighty row erupted over the joke, with even Conservative Central Office – which condemned the e-mail – entering the fray.
The offending e-mail immediately ignited a furious backlash, which forced Mr Turner to issue an apology and face investigations from Dudley Council and Tory head office.
Labour Cradley councillor Tim Crumpton, who reported Mr Turner to the authority’s standards committee, said: “With everything that’s happened over the last two years in our borough, with the English Defence League and the mosque, to have a senior councillor sending this is beyond the pale.”
The e-mail, described as “maybe the best joke of the year”, refers to a Somalian immigrant in London who asks a series of people if they are British before being told by an African lady all the British are probably “at work”.
The same joke saw two Conservative councillors in the Ribble Valley suspended after Tory chiefs said it “had no place in the Conservative Party”.
Mr Turner issued an apology describing the gag as “a mild attempt to relieve the present strife we are all enjoying”.
A member of Dudley Council said: “It’s appalling and racist. If, in 2010, a councillor sends this and thinks it is in any way funny, it shows elected representatives in a very sad light.”
Mr Turner, who is a member of the council’s information and communications technology working group, will now be quizzed by the standards committee, which has the power to sack him.
The councillors’ code of conduct says members should “promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person, and by treating people with respect, regardless of their race, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We are happy that the issue has been handled locally and appropriately.
“Ken Turner has apologised for the insensitivity of his e-mail and has apologised for any offence it may have caused.
“He has voluntarily suspended his membership of the Conservative Party, has referred himself to the council’s standards committee and has agreed to attend a diversity awareness course at his own expense.”
Mr Turner sent the joke on December 2. The following day he circulated another e-mail saying: “I understand that it may have offended some of our members and I would apologise unreservedly and assure you all it was intended in a simply joking manner.”
When contacted by the News, Mr Turner refused to comment further.
Halesowen News.
Hayley Green and Cradley South councillor Ken Turner suspended his party membership yesterday after an almighty row erupted over the joke, with even Conservative Central Office – which condemned the e-mail – entering the fray.
The offending e-mail immediately ignited a furious backlash, which forced Mr Turner to issue an apology and face investigations from Dudley Council and Tory head office.
Labour Cradley councillor Tim Crumpton, who reported Mr Turner to the authority’s standards committee, said: “With everything that’s happened over the last two years in our borough, with the English Defence League and the mosque, to have a senior councillor sending this is beyond the pale.”
The e-mail, described as “maybe the best joke of the year”, refers to a Somalian immigrant in London who asks a series of people if they are British before being told by an African lady all the British are probably “at work”.
The same joke saw two Conservative councillors in the Ribble Valley suspended after Tory chiefs said it “had no place in the Conservative Party”.
Mr Turner issued an apology describing the gag as “a mild attempt to relieve the present strife we are all enjoying”.
A member of Dudley Council said: “It’s appalling and racist. If, in 2010, a councillor sends this and thinks it is in any way funny, it shows elected representatives in a very sad light.”
Mr Turner, who is a member of the council’s information and communications technology working group, will now be quizzed by the standards committee, which has the power to sack him.
The councillors’ code of conduct says members should “promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person, and by treating people with respect, regardless of their race, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said: “We are happy that the issue has been handled locally and appropriately.
“Ken Turner has apologised for the insensitivity of his e-mail and has apologised for any offence it may have caused.
“He has voluntarily suspended his membership of the Conservative Party, has referred himself to the council’s standards committee and has agreed to attend a diversity awareness course at his own expense.”
Mr Turner sent the joke on December 2. The following day he circulated another e-mail saying: “I understand that it may have offended some of our members and I would apologise unreservedly and assure you all it was intended in a simply joking manner.”
When contacted by the News, Mr Turner refused to comment further.
Halesowen News.
Racism fears grow for 2018
A Tuesday night protest had 1,000 football fans blocking Leningradsky Prospekt as police stood by, raising questions about how law enforcement will ensure security for the championship, which is expected to attract millions of fans from around the world.
The unrest was sparked by the death of Yegor Sviridov, who was shot on the night of Dec. 6 in a mass street brawl between natives of the North Caucasus and local football fans.
Police initially released five of six detained suspects in the shooting, sparking an outrage in the Fratria, or Brotherhood, movement of Spartak club fans, who appealed to prosecutors to catch the culprits and called for a Dec. 7 rally.
The protest was ostensibly planned as a peaceful memorial in honour of Sviridov, but turned more aggressive as fans blocked the busy highway and started shouting “Russia for Russians!” and “Moscow for Muscovites,” according to videos posted on YouTube.
Some fans were seen smashing kiosks and ad signs, news agencies reported. In contrast, Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov insisted that there were no reports of violence or vandalism.
Football fans were planning several rallies over the weekend in wake of Sviridov’s shooting. Meanwhile, Spartak fans in Zilina, Slovakia, disrupted their team’s European Champions League match with flares and fireworks on Wednesday.
The outcry has led police to take a more active stance.
Six people were detained, including Aslan Cherkesov, from the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Police initially decided to release everyone but Cherkesov, but issued a warrant to detain the other men on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Investigative Committee was questioning the police “in connection to their inaction,” according to a statement published on the Committee’s web site.
Meanwhile, Cherkesov, who claimed that he was shooting in self-defence, was charged with murder on Wednesday.
“He was attacked, with his face pressed against a car bumper, and he was shooting back blindly without seeing where the gun was pointed. He didn’t want to kill anybody,” Cherkesov’s lawyer, Vera Goncharova, was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.
Official response
Russia’s official football organisations – the Russian Football Union and the All-Russian Union of Supporters – issued a joint statement criticizing police inaction in the Sviridov murder but also condemning rowdy fans for unsanctioned rallies.
[We understand] the indignation of Spartak fans over the rather strange behaviour of prosecutors,” a statement said. “At the same time we find yesterday’s behaviour of Spartak fans unacceptable.”
The organisations were both concerned that activists from DPNI – the ultranationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration – were intervening in the row.
World Cup preparations
The incidents underscore mounting concern over security and ethnic tensions ahead of the World Cup, reflecting a link that still remains between football fans and nationalist groups.
But while officials said a mix of tolerance programmes and security measures are being developed, it wasn’t clear to what extent these would target racial tensions specifically.
“A large number of [tolerance] measures were outlined in the World Cup bid,” a source in the bid team told The Moscow News.
The Russian Football Union adopted a memorandum last month that would launch a tolerance programme for football fans starting in 2012. On Thursday, it held a conference with police, FSB officers and fans to develop security measures ahead of the games. But representatives of the Union could not immediately elaborate on the programmes.
“It’s eight years until the Championship, and a new generation of football fans will grow up by that time,” Alexander Shprygin, head of the All-Russian Union of Supporters, told The Moscow News. He was sceptical that ethnic tensions would be a problem at that point, but indicated that football organisations were taking the matter seriously.
“Of course there are targeted programs by the Football Union and there will be programs by the Youth Ministry, because this is a government priority, and the government gave FIFA certain guarantees in its bid,” he said.
Independent experts say there is a strong link between violent football fans and racist groups in Russia.
“There is a direct connection between these incidents and the World Cup bid,” Galina Kozhevnikova, an expert with Sova, a group that monitors hate crimes, told The Moscow News. She noted that this week’s incidents were practically identical to an episode this summer, when fans protested over the murder of Spartak fan Yury Volkov.
“During the rallies [this summer] it was strictly forbidden to shout any Russian nationalist slogans,” she said. “Ultranationalists were present, but as soon as they started shouting slogans, they were immediately kicked out.”
Kozhevnikova believes this was the result of an agreement between these fans and the Moscow police, precisely because Russia was still a bidder for the World Cup. Now, “we have already won the bid, so why make agreements and deny that racism exists?” she said.
Kozhevnikova was sceptical that official tolerance programs would work, saying that police would most likely resort to extra-judicial measures of warning or threatening fans and groups that they are in contact with.
Noting a number of beatings of police by football fans, she said that fear, and not ideological support, was behind police inaction during this week’s unrest.
The Moscow news
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