A/HRC/4/19/Add.3 page 12 C. Policies and measures to combat racism and racial discrimination 25. The combat against all manifestations of extremism was presented as a priority issue by State officials dealing with law enforcement, particularly the Office of the Prosecutor-General, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Justice. Officials from those institutions contended that since the adoption of the Federal Act on Counteracting Extremist Activities, the work and effectiveness of law enforcement agencies had significantly increased. 26. The Special Rapporteur was informed that in 2005, in 17 trials that reached the verdict, 52 persons were convicted for attacks and murders on ethnic hatred grounds, with penalties ranging from one year of colony settlement to life imprisonment.7 Although global, official figures for 2006 were not yet available in the months that followed his visit,8 the Special Rapporteur was informed of several high profile convictions where the courts took into account the motives of national, racial or religious hatred.9 Officials also noted the preparation of files to support a court application aimed at banning several fascist groups, including “Mad Crowd” and “Schulz 88”.10 27. Particular emphasis was put by the President of the Supreme Court and officials of the Ministry of Justice on the measures recently implemented in order to ban or prohibit the registration of organizations with extremist platforms. Reference was made to the unprecedented ruling of the Moscow City Court in December 2005, later upheld by the Supreme Court, excluding Rodina - the country’s then fourth largest political party - from elections to the Moscow City Duma on the grounds of incitement to ethnic hatred. 7 In comparison, in 2004, racial motivation was identified in seven sentences among finished trials on violent crimes, resulting in 32 convictions. In 2003, only three sentences were pronounced for racially motivated crimes. 8 Information by the Moscow Bureau for Human Rights, dated December 2006, indicates that in 2006, 109 persons were condemned for ethnic hate crimes. Article 282 of the Criminal Code was present in the verdict of 72 persons condemned. 9 Reference was made to the conviction in June 2006 of two skinheads who killed a Mauritanian national in St. Petersburg to 4 years in a strict-regime colony; the conviction in September 2006 to 16 years of prison of Alexander Koptsev, who on 11 January 2006 attacked a synagogue in Moscow; and the conviction in November 2006 of three men to sentences ranging from 12 to 18 months of internal exile for the racially motivated beating of Zaur Tutov, Minister of Culture of Karbardino-Balkaria, on 1 April 2006. 10 “Mad Crowd” members were allegedly involved in several homicides in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Province, including the murders of Professor Nicolai Guirenko on 19 June 2004 and of the Senegalese student Samba Lampsar on 7 April 2006.