Russian neo-Nazi vigilante ‘Hatchet’ found dead in jail

A notorious Russian neo-Nazi who carried out vigilante attacks on gay people, suspected pedophiles and drug dealers has been found dead in jail, investigators say.

Maxim Martsinkevich, nicknamed “Tesak,” or hatchet, was serving a 10-year term for attacks on people he considered to be drug dealers.

He ran far-right youth groups and posed with swastikas.

He was best known for a vigilante campaign called “Occupy Pedophilia” that targeted gay men, luring them to meetings with teenage boys and then filming attacks on them that included dousing them with urine.

He also led a similar campaign against those suspected of drug dealing.

“The prisoner’s body was found in the morning,” the Investigative Committee for the Chelyabinsk region in the Urals, where he was incarcerated, says in a statement that confirmed details in media reports but did not name Martsinkevich directly.

“According to preliminary information, the man left a note before his death,” investigators says, adding they were looking into the circumstances.

— AFP