Rapist’s Murder Stirs Debate
By Galina Stolyarova
Staff Writer
As a retired local boxer stands trial for killing an assailant who was caught attempting to rape his adopted child, the city parliament is calling for increased penalties for pedophilia. The Just Russia faction of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly has drawn up a draft amendment to Russia’s Criminal Code that envisages increasing the imprisonment for pedophiles to a maximum of up to 25 years in jail or a life sentence without possibility of release. On last New Year’s Eve, Alexander Kuznetsov caught 20-year old Uzbek native Bakhtishod Khairillayev sexually attacking his 8-year-old adopted son in the stair well of his apartment building. The boy was naked and unconscious. Ex-boxer Kuznetsov then beat Khairillayev to death. If tried and sentenced for raping a person under the age of consent (18 years old), Khairullayev would have received up to 10 years in prison. Earlier this month the city parliament sent an appeal to the St. Petersburg prosecutor Sergei Zaitsev asking to extend the scope of the investigation into the circumstances Khairillayev’s death by conducting a psychiatric evaluation of Kuznetsov. “This information will play a crucial role in deciding this case and qualifying the actions of Kuznetsov,” saidViktor Yevtukhov, a United Russia lawmaker with the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. The Kuznetsov case, which has recently been reclassified from murder to premeditated grevious physical assault causing accidental death, has stirred heated discussions across Russia, with some politicians voicing out the idea of sterilization of pedophiles, and the Russian Orthodox Church backing the idea of a life sentences. Kuznetsov is facing between five and fifteen years in prison. Speaking to reporters in Moscow, archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy head of the External Relations Department of Moscow Patriarchate said he found Kuznetsov’s actions “understandable.” “I find it appalling that there are people in Russian society capable of such a dirty crime as the rape of an 8-year-old boy,” Chaplin said. “A softly-softly approach and compassion toward such assailants is intolerable, and punishments meted out to them must be heavy and unavoidable. Had the father known that the criminal would get his due in full, he would most certainly not have faced such a tragic and horrendous choice.” St. Petersburg ombudsman Igor Mikhailov is convinced the Kuznetsov case shows the weakness of Russian legislation which he argues “cannot protect its citizens from assailants.” “I would like everyone to take a broader, unbiased look at the situation: a law-obiding citizen is facing trial as a result of a failure of the state’s inflexible judicial system that could not protect his child,” Mikhailov said. “If you look at the boxer’s case from this angle, he should be fully acquitted without even a suspended sentence.” The ombudsmen went on to suggest that the state must “find an adequate way of admitting its failure.” But local human rights groups have criticized Mikhailov’s approach and accused the ombudsman of justifying mob law and putting political pressure on the investigators. Moscow City Prosecutor Yury Syomin warned on Friday against “turning the boxer into a heroic figure.” “Whatever the circumstance may have been, nobody gave the man the right to take another person’s life,” Syomin said.
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