Students who were seen naked in a window by children had their charges reduced

And the investigative experiment cast doubt on the version of the investigation

The Lefortovo Court of the capital began to consider one of the strangest cases of child molestation. This is the case of two students who allegedly had sex near the window of an apartment – in front of all the, so to speak, honest people. In this case, “honest people” means children playing in the courtyard of the house. The story looks absurd when you start to delve into the details. It seems that the investigation also understands this: at least the charges against the students were recently commuted.

We have already written about this matter several times, but let us briefly recall the essence. According to the initial version of the investigation, on one of the August days of 2022, young people, while in their apartment in broad daylight, found themselves near the window, naked. And they even climbed onto the windowsill. At the same time, children playing in the courtyard on the playground noticed them and told adults about what happened. There are five victims under 12 years old in the case.

The case was initiated under Article 132 Part 5 of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment up to life imprisonment. The students’ parents were shocked. Fathers and mothers could not understand why their children could end up in a colony with maniacs and murderers, if they not only did not touch, but did not even communicate with the victims. The accused experienced no less amazement, mixed with horror. I visited them in the pre-trial detention center when I was a member of the PMC. The guys still didn’t understand what exactly they were accused of.

Apparently, the investigators did not fully understand this either. After all, Article 132 provides for punishment for sexual acts committed with the use of violence or the threat of its use, or taking advantage of the helpless state of the victim. Neither one, nor the other, nor the third were even close. As a result, the case was reclassified to the more lenient Article 135 Part 3 (“depraved acts committed against two or more persons”). This crime is punishable by imprisonment from 5 to 12 years. However, this option, of course, looks absurd.

“MK” became aware of the results of the investigative experiment, which for some reason was decided to be carried out only 11 months after the arrest of the students. So, the experiment showed that from the playground it is impossible to see what is happening on the 2nd floor of the house, which is not even opposite the play complex, but a little to the side.

The student who took part in the experiment undressed and positioned himself at the “crime scene” – in the jacuzzi and on the shelf. The extras were unable to see parts of his body below the waist from the street. Moreover, it is almost impossible to climb onto the windowsill and stay on it – the configuration does not allow it, this was also reflected during the experiment.

Initially, the victims’ testimonies varied. In October 2023, the children were interrogated without video, and these interrogations repeated each other word for word. Only one child was interrogated under video. The boy allegedly saw that one young man was lying on the windowsill and pushing another one away from him, and he was laughing and did not let him get up. At the same time, the student who was on the windowsill did not demonstrate anything; the boy did not see anything below the waist.

One of the arguments of the investigation is that there was eye contact between the naked students and the children. But it is, of course, impossible to confirm this through experiment. There may or may not have been contact. The accused themselves claim that they did not look outside.

But our security forces are not looking for easy ways. Therefore, apparently, many more interesting things await us during the trial of the students.