A Russian court has sentenced seven self-confessed members of a "Satanist" goth cult to prison terms for their role in the brutal 2008 slaying of four teenagers. The group's ringleader, twenty-one year old Nikolai Ogolobayak, was sentenced to twenty years in prison for murder, robbery, and desecrating a corpse. The other seven received sentences of two to ten years while an eight defendant, aged twenty-one, has been ruled insane and confined to a psychiatric hospital. Although family members of the victims condemned the lenient sentences for many of the convicted, prosecutors defended the decision on the grounds that a ten-year maximum sentence is standard for defendants who were underage when committing their offense.
Although the trial was closed to the public because of the gruesome details of the slaying, the court indicated that the victims were apparently killed in an initiation ritual. The bodies of the victims, three male and one female, were then cut apart and buried. A Russian news agency reported that one of the lawyers of the defendants committed suicide last May.
This case is the latest in a string of highly publicized deaths that have been linked to the underground goth culture in Russia. A similar murder case in St. Petersburg involving self-confessed Goths was concluded last May and is likely to add to the call for a total ban on goth and emo music and websites across Russia. In declaring both types of music to be a "dangerous teen trend", a parliamentary committee has drafted legislation banning teenagers dressed as goths from entering schools or government buildings. One of the bill's sponsors has described goth and emo music as being "a social danger" and a "threat to national security". Emo music has been linked to teen suicides.
The bill is expected to become law before the end of the year.
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