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.
Albert Umbetyarov was trapped in a shed in the woods in the Dubovaya Roschcha region of Moscow after an argument on Friday May 19, Russian investigative authorities confirmed.
A witness told Argumenti that the attackers had ‘used bats to beat him almost unconscious’ before ‘dousing him in petrol’, and locking him in a shed they set on fire.
The attackers were reportedly aged 13 to 15, and the horror scene was captured on camera by a group of girls who were said to have uploaded the footage and streamed it online.
Another witness said Albert was attacked ‘out of envy’ as a successful Judo athlete who ‘was doing better than them’.
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.