A/HRC/4/19/Add.3 page 18 particularly be subjected to various forms of racial profiling, in particular, racially selective inspections and abusive identity checks,16 forcible entrance into premises, searches of firms, fabrication of criminal accusations by law enforcement officials and arbitrary refusal of residence registration stamps. In a context of increasing intolerance and suspicion against Muslims, manifested in many cases by the profanation of Muslim graves and attacks on mosques, Caucasians and Central Asians would also be major targets of discrimination in the housing and employment sectors. 50. Members of the Caucasian and Central Asian communities, including children, are reported to be a major target of violence by extremist groups. Particularly disturbing is the assassination of Khursheda Sultonova, a 9-year-old Tajik girl murdered in St. Petersburg in February 2004 by a group of teenagers armed with baseball bats, chains and knives allegedly shouting the slogan “Russia for the Russians”. The verdict by the St. Petersburg City Court of March 2004 convicting the teenagers on charges of hooliganism sparked outrage among human rights campaigners, who considered that the lenient sentence would encourage an increase of racist and xenophobic violence by neo-Nazi and extremist groups in the country. 51. In the months that followed the visit, the Special Rapporteur was informed by human rights organizations of manifestations of growing intolerance and hostility towards Caucasians, particularly Chechens, in the city of Kondopoga, in the Republic of Carelia, during the first days of September 2006, and towards the Georgian community, following the arrest in Georgia of four Russian military officers on 27 September 2006. The Special Rapporteur intends to follow up on the allegations received. Discrimination against Roma 52. Despite the figures of the 2002 census estimating the Roma population at 182,766 persons, other sources estimate the actual size of the Roma population much higher, ranging from 600,000 to 1,000,000.17 Within the Roma population itself, there are a number of different ethnic groups: Russian Roma and groups related to them by language and culture (Polish, Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, Finnish, Siberian Roma), groups notably distinct from Russian Roma (such as Kelderash, Lovari, Krimi, Kishinevtsi, Plashuni, Servi and Vlach), and groups originating from other countries, such as Ukraine, Moldova and different countries from Central Asia. The majority of Roma speak one of many dialects of Romani, although almost all also speak 16 The study “Ethnic profiling in the Moscow metro”, conducted in 2006 by the NGO Open Society Justice Initiative and the Russian NGO Jurix, indicated that persons of non-Slav appearance are on average 21.8 times more likely to be stopped by police at the Moscow metro than those of Slavic appearance. 17 “The Roma of Russia: the subject of multiple forms of discrimination”, joint report by the FIDH and the Centre for the Social and Legal Protection of Roma in Northwest Russia (Memorial Saint Petersburg), November 2004.