20.05.2015
In the
beginning of May 2015 Department of Inquiry of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moskovskiy district has began a criminal case based on Criminal
codex 116 Article 1 "Battery" in relation of persons unknown, who have
attacked two young women during the night of 19 to 20 of October 2014. According to
the victims, the attack took place due to the homophobic hatred and included verbal abuse and threats.
Young women's lawyers did not manage to get the reaction regarding the criminal complaint, the police initially did not engage the investigation of the circumstances, and have refused the initiation of the criminal case, the behaviour of the investigator were appealed by the victims.
On 2nd of May 2015 the investigator has finally filed the criminal case, but accepted only one of two young women as a victim, and the assumed qualification of the attack does not list the hatred towards LGBT as the motive of the
attack. More than that, the investigator has claimed that the attack took place
"during the conflict, which arose on the grounds of personal hostile
relationship".
Ksenia Kirichenko, a coordinator of strategic legal process, has said "The
fact that the criminal case was initiated, of course, must the the cause for happiness. However, the qualification of the attack is something that we must disagree with. The attack is labelled as "domestic", while there are
clear signs, pointing towards a special motive - homophobic hatred. Such motive, according to, for example, the position of Constitutional Court of Russian Federation and Committee of Human Rights of UN must be considered as aggravating. Such crimes must be punished more severely, since, while they are aimed at the specific persons, they factually end up being a signal to the entire vulnerable community."
Victims' lawyers will continue to push for the attack to be qualified in a way that takes into account the hatred towards the social group of LGBT.
It should be noted that the attack took place during the night from 19 to 20 of October 2014 in Moskovskiy district. Two men have attacked two young lesbian women who were coming home on the last underground train. The men have already noticed a pain on the escalator, and have followed them. One of the men has attacked the women from the behind, while shouting lesbophobic insults and
"No to LGBT propaganda!". The second man was recording it on the camera.
Press contact:
Ksenia Kirichenko, coordinator of the programme of strategic legal process of LGBT-initiative group "Vyhod": +7 (950) 020 41 55, kseniya@comingoutspb.ru
Additional information:
● Update on court cases of LGBT-initiative group
"Vyhod" [Russian language]: http://comingoutspb.com/ru/news/update_2
● Young lesbian women demand that their assailants are
found [Russian language]: http://comingoutspb.com/ru/news/no_hate