A resident of Krasnodar, whom her husband forcibly took away from the shelter along with her son, agreed in court to leave him the child

The Prikubansky District Court of Krasnodar approved a settlement agreement between Maria Smelaya and her ex-husband Chingiskhan Shabazov, reports the human rights project “Caucasus Without a Mother”. According to it, the woman transferred custody of her son to his father, whom she had previously accused of domestic violence.

According to Smelaya, she did not abandon the child and did everything she could, but came to an amicable agreement because the child grew up during the proceedings and no longer recognizes her. According to the terms of the document, the mother receives the right to see her son twice a month - on the second and fourth Saturday, from 12:00 to 18:00. Holidays and vacations are divided according to the schedule.

In April 2024, Smelaya for the first time turned to human rights activists for help. She said that her husband systematically beat her, including during pregnancy. In May, a woman arrived at a shelter outside Krasnodar, but two days later Shabazov arrived there with his accomplices, who broke down the door, tore off the cameras, beat the employee and forcibly took away Smelaya and her child.

After this, posts from the woman’s behalf began to appear on social networks. They said that she impulsively left for Moscow after a quarrel with her husband, although they actually had a good relationship; at the same time, human rights activists deceived her and wanted to harm her.

Shabazov took his son away from Smelaya, after which she turned to the Investigative Committee with a request to punish the man and find the child. In June, Shabazov was detained on charges of arbitrariness in connection with an attack on a shelter. Then the prosecutor's office canceled the decision to initiate the case. In July, the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, ordered to re-open a criminal case against Shabazov and “to present a report on the progress and results of his investigation.”