A jury in Saratov, Russia found three men who participated in a mass attack on minorities guilty of murder, according to a July 30, 2008 article in the government daily "Rossiyskaya Gazeta." Five other men face charges of "hooliganism" in an attack that involved around 60 assailants, the vast majority of whom never faced charges. The latter fact may have influenced the recommendation of the jury that the defendants deserve a lighter than normal prison term, especially because the jury was not informed about the "hooliganism" charges against five other participants in the attack.

The violence stemmed from an incident at a slot machine, when a man from the Caucasus made lewd comments to a Russian woman, who threatened to tell her friend about it. The man did not back down and agreed to settle accounts with her friend later that evening. Around 60 men showed up at the appointed time and place, only to find that there was nobody there to brawl with. They then went after two ethnic minority men who happened to walk by, but they escaped without injury. At that point, one of the defendants organized the men to attack a nearby construction site, where workers, primarily from the Caucasus, were known to be sleeping. Two of the defendants cornered a guard at the site, cut his telephone lines and warned him not to call the police. The mob then burst into the partly built building, beating minorities with hammers, shovels and clubs for around 10 minutes. Some of the victims jumped out of windows to escape, others hid. Thirty-two year old Zurab Albastov, a law student and father of two young children, was struck around 20 times with a hammer and shovel and died at the scene. Construction worker Azrudin Galimov lived for a few days after the attack in a hospital before succumbing to his injuries.

Prosecutors showed the jury video of the attack that a witness shot which clearly showed one of the defendants approaching the site with a wooden club in his hand. The defendants' lawyers therefore had no choice but to admit that their clients took part in the violence, but they claimed that they did not strike the blows that took the victims' lives. This strategy did not convince the jury.

On August 1, the local news web site Saratov Inform reported that the defendants were sentenced to 15, 15, and 13 years respectively on charges of "murder motivated by hooliganism." It is not clear why nobody was charged with hate crimes violations.

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