Judge who jailed neo-Nazis is killed

A Moscow judge who sentenced neo-Nazis to prison for hate killings was gunned down April 12, marking the latest murder in a surge of violence against activists and officials opposed to Russian nationalists.

Moscow City Court judge Eduard Chuvashov was shot contract-style in the stairwell of his apartment building in central Moscow, Russia’s top investigative body said.

The murderer used a silencer and left no shells, but investigators obtained footage from surveillance cameras showing a tall Slavic man, about 30, coming out of Chuvashov’s apartment building shortly after the killing, it said.

A leading rights group pointed the finger at a far-right ultranationalist group with alleged ties to Kremlin-backed youth movements, saying it may have links to the murder and incited hatred for Chuvashov on the Internet. A nationalist leader denied the accusations. — ap