News

Alexander Bastrykin has sent letters to the Chairman of the President’s Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov and the Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin requesting further assistance in investigation into the U.S. murder of RF citizen Vanya Skorobogatov adopted by the Cravers.

In his letter the Investigative Committee Chairman pointed out that a lot of Russian people do not agree with the U.S. verdict according to which the Cravers convicted for the murder of a child are already free. Therefore, the Russian Investigative Committee took measures to step up investigation into criminal case opened by the General Investigative Directorate on March 5, 2010. Basing on the evidence collected, Russian detectives passed a resolution accusing the Cravers of committing a grave crime – the intentional causing of death to a child committed by a group of persons under a preliminary conspiracy (paragraphs «в», «ж», part 2, article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code).

The IC Chairman reminded to Mikhail Fedotov and Vladimir Lukin that in half of 17 cases into deaths of children adopted from Russia and killed in the USA those accused received either insignificant or suspended punishment, or even had been acquitted.

Mr Bastrykin addressed the leaders of human rights organizations with the request to assist within their competence in using against the Cravers all tools of penal constraint provided by the Russian legal system. In addition, the IC Chairman offered Mr Fedotov and Lukin to assist revocation in supervisory order the Chelyabinsk regional court decision on Vanya and Dasha Skorobogatov’s adoption in order to make a further request on Cravers’ annulment of Dasha Skorobogatova which will allow her returning to Russia. Dasha’s relatives live in Primorye and are ready to adopt her.

Investigative Committee is preparing similar petitions and will send them to other human rights organizations. Namely, the petition is ready to be sent to the Head of Moscow-Helsinki group Lyudmila Alekseyeva.