Russian sisters who were charged with murder for killing their sexually abusive father now recognized by prosecutors as victims

Three Russian sisters who killed their father, claiming he had sexually abused them for years, have officially been recognized as victims, bringing them hope that the resultant murder charges will be reclassified as self-defense.

According to lawyer Alexey Parshin, who represents the Khachaturyan siblings, their deceased father will be posthumously prosecuted for torture, sexual abuse and coercion to acts of a sexual nature. Mikhail Khachaturyan was killed in July 2018.

“We have just finished reading the resolution of the investigation on the initiation of a criminal case against Mikhail Khachaturyan,” Parshin told TASS news agency on Tuesday. “Our clients are officially recognized as victims.”

The sisters, Krestina, Angelina and Maria, were detained after their father’s body was found with multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest. They admitted to killing him, alleging he had raped them and used them as slaves.

At the end of 2019, the Investigative Committee announced charges of premeditated murder, despite discovering that they were abused. It was found that, since November 2014, Khachaturyan systematically beat them, humiliated them, threatened them with physical violence and forced them to commit sexual acts. A few months later, the prosecutor general told investigators to drop the charges, but the order was ignored.

However, despite now being recognized as victims, charges against the sisters still remain. 

“If the criminal case against Mikhail goes to court, and the court finds him guilty of committing all the crimes against the girls, we will get another piece of already irrefutable evidence that the sisters acted in defense,” said Alexey Liptser, another lawyer.

The youngest of the sisters, Maria, was declared insane at the time of the killing and was sent for compulsory medical treatment. The other two are currently under house arrest. According to another lawyer for the sisters, Yaroslav Pakulin, their trial won't begin until their father's trial has ended, so it is unlikely that they will be free any time soon.

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