MOSCOW -- A man arrested for the killing of a soccer fan in Moscow says he acted in self-defense, RFE/RL's Russian Service reports.
On December 6, one soccer fan was killed and a second injured during fighting between supporters of the Spartak soccer team and a group of young men from the North Caucasus.
Police arrested the suspect, Aslan Cherkesov, who is from the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, on December 7. Cherkesov says that he had to use his traumatic pistol, for which he has a license, to defend himself after fans attacked him.
Traumatic guns, which fire pellets or rubber bullets, are regarded as nonlethal, but have been linked to a number of deaths in recent years.
On December 7, about 1,000 soccer fans blocked Leningrad Avenue in Moscow demanding the person responsible for their fellow fan's death be punished. An RFE/RL correspondent reports that the protesters chanted nationalist slogans, set off fireworks, and destroyed several kiosks.
Read in Russian here.
On December 6, one soccer fan was killed and a second injured during fighting between supporters of the Spartak soccer team and a group of young men from the North Caucasus.
Police arrested the suspect, Aslan Cherkesov, who is from the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic, on December 7. Cherkesov says that he had to use his traumatic pistol, for which he has a license, to defend himself after fans attacked him.
Traumatic guns, which fire pellets or rubber bullets, are regarded as nonlethal, but have been linked to a number of deaths in recent years.
On December 7, about 1,000 soccer fans blocked Leningrad Avenue in Moscow demanding the person responsible for their fellow fan's death be punished. An RFE/RL correspondent reports that the protesters chanted nationalist slogans, set off fireworks, and destroyed several kiosks.
Read in Russian here.
