An 11-year-old judo star was burned alive after he was ‘doused in petrol’ and locked in a shed that was set on fire by ‘envious’ older children.
After a disagreement on Friday, May 19, Albert Umbetyarov was discovered imprisoned in a shed in the nearby woods in the Dubovaya Roschcha neighborhood of Moscow, according to Russian investigating authorities.
Argumenti was told by a witness that the perpetrators battered the victim nearly to unconsciousness with bats, doused him in gasoline, and then imprisoned him in a shed that they then set on fire.
The horrible scenario was recorded on video by a group of girls who were believed to have uploaded the footage and streamed it online. The attackers were apparently between the ages of 13 and 15.
Another witness claimed that because Albert was a talented Judo athlete and “was doing better than them,” people attacked him “out of envy.”
A local told media after the attack that ‘there was a fight… one of the younger children who witnessed it said that the victim was beaten at his knees so he couldn’t run, or even walk’.
One of the boys in the group ran away as the older children attacked Albert.
Younger children aged six and seven playing nearby were then said to have ran to adults to get help.
The father of one of his friends said his son had left the scene before the horror and returned later to find Albert had been burned to death.
‘At 7 pm he called me in tears,’ said the father, Alexey. ‘He told me: ‘My friend burned to death in the shed’. I went there. I saw the flames. There was no-one to be rescued by that time.’
He said that men had arrived with shovels to try to get through the blaze to save the child, but were too late.
The boy’s judo coach, Alexander Tvanba, said Albert was ‘smart and very peaceful, he wouldn’t offend a fly. He was very hard-working, and never had any issues. He won several competitions.’
He said he believed Albert would have been unconscious, saying he would have been strong enough to force his way out if awake.
The Russian Investigative Committee said: ‘On May 19, 2023 children during a quarrel shut a boy inside a shed, locked the shed from outside, and nailed the door.
‘Next a fire started. According to preliminary findings, [the fire started] inside the shed. Children could not open the door, and asked for help.
‘When help arrived, the boy’s body was found inside the burned shed.’
The committee’s head Alexander Bastrykin said this month that a ‘general rise in crime is underway’ in Russia.
‘We see a trend when serious and particularly grave offences are being committed by children.’
He also highlighted ‘an increasing tendency of extremist crimes committed by young people’ with a ‘sharp increase’ in 2022 and 2023 ‘after the onset of the special military operation’ in Ukraine.