World
Four guilty of racial attacks on US election day
US President Barack Obama. Four New York men have pleaded guilty to a string of racially motivated assaults on the night Barack Obama was elected as the first black US president, a court spokesman said on Monday. Photo/REUTERS
Posted Tuesday, February 3 2009 at 17:47
NEW YORK, Tuesday
Four New York men have pleaded guilty to a string of racially motivated assaults on the night Barack Obama was elected as the first black US president, a court spokesman said on Monday.
The three assaults in the New York City borough of Staten Island on November 4 targeted black men, court documents said.
The accused ringleader, Ralph Nicoletti, 18, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Brooklyn to taking part in assaults that included striking a teenager with a metal pipe, pushing another man to the ground and driving a car into a third man.
In a coma
The third victim was seriously injured and remained in a coma for several weeks after the attack, court papers said.
As a condition of his plea, Nicoletti agreed to a sentence of 12 years in prison, although the length is subject to a judge’s approval, said court spokesman Robert Nardoza.
Three other men -- Brian Carranza, 21, and Michael Contreras and Bryan Garaventa, both 18 -- pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit hate crime assaults, Mr Nardoza said. Each faces up to 10 years in prison.
“The conduct of the defendants is shocking and deplorable,” said US attorney Benton Campbell. “On a night of historic significance, these four angry men assaulted their victims in an attempt to punish them for exercising a fundamental right of all Americans -- the right to vote.”
Meanwhile, a group of women badminton players from the US will play in a tournament in Iran this month, the State Department said on Monday, in the latest sporting exchange between the long-time adversaries.
The February 3-9 visit to Tehran by eight players along with four coaches and managers is the first such exchange since the January 20 inauguration of President Obama, who has made clear his aim of pursuing greater engagement with Iran.
The US cut diplomatic ties with Tehran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis in which a group of militant Iranian students held 52 US diplomats hostage at the US embassy in Tehran for 444 days. (Reuters)
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