“I didn’t want lynching”

The defendants in the case of gang rape of a 15-year-old were given real terms

This was the title of our publication in Novaya Gazeta on April 10, 2019, about how the father of a raped 15-year-old girl increasingly recalled the film Voroshilov Shooter, where a grandfather shoots his granddaughter's rapists.

“You can’t even imagine what I would have done with them when everything happened! But he overcame himself, telling himself that lynching was not an option, law and justice were on our side. We ended up living in hell for five and a half years. We see neither law nor justice, ”said the girl’s father.

On May 7, 2019, the situation changed dramatically. The defendants were taken into custody in the courtroom of the Shchelkovsky City Court. According to the verdict, they will serve their sentences in a penal colony for three years each. There were some excesses here: after a break in the court session, one of the convicts did not appear for the announcement of the verdict. Felt unwell or went on the run, is unknown. In the coming days, if he does not show up in some hospital or somewhere else, he will be put on the wanted list.

“We understand that the parents of the convicts will certainly file an appeal, and that the story is not over yet. But such processes give hope that there is still justice and fairness in the country, even if not immediately, through many obstacles, but the inevitability of punishment for crimes still wins if you do not give up and fight,” the girl’s parents told me.