VORONEZH, October 13 (RIA Novosti) - The prosecutor's office of the Voronezh Region intends to investigate the attack on three students in which one Peruvian was murdered, and an attack on Russian citizens in the same area, as related cases, the regional prosecutor said Thursday.
Alexander Ponomaryov told a session of the Voronezh regional Duma that both criminal cases would be investigated together, if investigations proved that the same group of hooligans carried out the attacks on foreign students and on Russian citizens on October 9 at the Olympic sports center.
On October 9, a group of unidentified individuals attacked three foreign students from Voronezh State University. One of the students, a Peruvian, died on site from knife wounds and head injuries, while the other two are in a serious condition in hospital.
On the same day, four young Russians were attacked at the sports center. They received injuries and were taken to hospital.
Voronezh human rights activists have demanded that the regional prosecutor's office acknowledge that the murder of the Peruvian student was motivated by racial hatred.
However, Yuri Bykov, deputy head of the regional department of the Interior Ministry, said that the press may be wrong in describing the murder as a race-hate crime.
