Moscow football fans demand to punish Caucasian who injured their comrade in Maloyaroslavets

On January 21, several hundred fans of Moscow football clubs arrived in the city of Maloyaroslavets, Kaluga Region, where they held an action with a demand to punish the young man from the Caucasus, who had knifed their comrade friend in a mass brawl.

In September 2011, in Maloyaroslavets, during celebrations of the Day of the City, a brawl burst out between two groups of young people; and Alexei Ershov was stabbed in his chest and neck. The police found that he was knifed by the 19-year-old Andronik Simonyan, who was detained but soon released under recognizance not to leave.

Ershov took his treatment for inflicted wounds for a month; and when he was discharged from hospital, Simonyan countrymen began, according to his story, threatening him. Besides, one of Simonyan's friends filed a counterclaim to the police, stating that Ershov had allegedly attacked them.

Fans began discussing the case of Ershov, who was a fan of the Moscow "Spartak" FC, in blogs back in December 2011. In particular, they began fundraising to pay for his lawyer, and stated the pressure exerted by the Armenian Diaspora on the inspectors; allegedly the members of the Diaspora had involved high-ranking Armenians in Moscow and in the retinue of the Governor of the Kaluga Region.

In January, the fans agreed on the Internet to organize a protest action, and on January 21, they arrived in Maloyaroslavets by train and in cars, not only fans of "Spartak", but of other clubs: "Torpedo", "CSKA", "Locomotive," "Dynamo", "Khimki" and "Saturn," the "Ridus.ru" writes.

Young people marched through the city while collecting signatures under the demand "not to let the criminal escape justice." Copies of subscription lists were handed over to the local prosecutor's office and city administration.

Alexei Goryunov, Deputy Head of the Press Service of the Chief Department of the MIA for the Kaluga Region, said that the fans, who came to Maloyaroslavets, made no disorders and behaved in an organized manner; they met the local deputy of the Legislative Assembly and asked him to take the criminal proceedings under his personal control.

According to Goryunov, on December 29, 2011, the criminal case against Simonyan was sent to the court. The young man is accused under two articles of the Criminal Code: disorderly conduct with use of weapon, and intentional infliction of grave bodily harm from malicious motives.

Mr Goryunov said that Yuri Gorborukov, the head of the Maloyaroslavets ROVD (District Interior Division) met the fans and told them about the investigation of the case and that it had been sent to the court.

"The fans were satisfied; after the meeting they went to the railway station in an organized manner and returned to Moscow," the Russian News Service quotes Mr Goryunov as saying.

In the opinion of Alexander Verkhovsky, Director of the Centre "Sova", which specializes in monitoring the extremism and xenophobia, the most severe punishment (the articles under which Simonyan is accused assume up to ten years in prison) is the most probable course of events after the action of the fans. According to his forecast, the authorities will behave in the same way as after the murder of Yegor Sviridov, a fan of "Spartak", in December 2010, when suspects were initially released and then arrested and sentenced to long terms.

"Where the court is not quite independent, the verdict depends on the rallies too. If under pressure, the UVD boss will order to redo the materials and instruct to undertake an arrest," the "Novye Izvestia" quotes Mr Verkhovsky as saying.