TOMSK, June 9 - RAPSI. The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal filed by seven Siberian skinheads sentenced to various custodial and suspended terms for murder, as well as a number of other crimes committed out of racial and ethnic hatred, the Tomsk Regional court reports.

A group of teenagers armed with bats, pipes, reinforcement bars and a pellet gun agreed on and carried out attacks on several individuals of non-Slavic appearance. One managed to run away.

The psychiatric examination has shown the defendants were in sane mind. Three skinheads have admitted to the crimes, two pleaded only partially guilty and the other two have denied the charges.

The court found them guilty. Five were sentenced to 8 to 9.5 years in prison while two received suspended sentences.

The convicts attempted to challenge the sentence, but the Supreme Court's Criminal Board has upheld it as lawful and substantiated.