Unexpected development in the Khachatryan sisters' case: the court has made a new decision.
15-09-2026 19:15 Ռուսաստան Human Rights
auroranews.am The Basmanny Court of Moscow has decided to leave the restrictions imposed on Kristina, Angelina, and Maria Khachatryan unchanged, rejecting the appeals of the girls' lawyers. The defense attorney for the youngest sister, Maria, Yaroslav Pakulin, told "Kommersant" that there is a "terrible delay" in this case. According to him, the court session during which his appeal was rejected took place back in July, but he only received a copy of the decision now.
Pakulin also noted that the examination of the appeal in the Basmanny Court took place five months after it was submitted.
"We demanded the removal of the violations of our clients' rights enshrined in the Constitution," the lawyer stated.
Immediately after the murder of Mikhail Khachatryan, his daughters were detained and transferred to an investigative isolation facility. However, later, when a large-scale campaign began to protect them as victims of domestic violence, they were released with certain restrictions on their actions. In particular, the sisters were prohibited from communicating with each other and other individuals involved in the case, except for their mother, Aurelia Dunduq, and were also banned from contacting the media, using phones, and accessing the internet.
The defense attorney for the elder sister, Kristina, Alexey Parshin, clarified that most of the restrictions were later lifted individually by the investigator. As a result, the girls even had the opportunity to find employment. However, they are still prohibited from speaking with journalists and meeting each other. The sisters could only see each other in court or during investigative actions, while no such actions have taken place in the last two years.
The lawyers pointed out the disproportionately long nature of the restrictions in their appeals, referring to the decision of the Supreme Court of Russia. According to it, such measures must be "proportional, justified, and necessary," and the courts must maintain a balance between the public interest in the application of procedural coercive measures and the importance of the individual's right to freedom.
According to the defense, "the duration of the ban on communicating with the sisters reaches the level of cruel treatment due to its impact on their psychological state." The girls also consider the ban on appearing in the media as a restriction of their rights, especially considering that their case is widely discussed in society.
The lawyers also addressed the decision of the investigator of the Investigative Committee to reject the motion to terminate the criminal case, which the defense considers illegal.
They noted that the decision of the Butyrsky Court, which found Mikhail Khachatryan guilty of sexual violence, distribution of pornography, and causing serious harm to health in the posthumous trial under Articles 132, 242, and 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, has already entered into legal force. In addition, this spring, the Investigative Committee of Russia received a demand from the Prosecutor General's Office to eliminate the violations committed during the extended pre-investigation. According to the publication, this effectively meant an instruction to terminate the case based on the absence of a crime.
According to some data, the investigator had begun preparing the relevant procedural documents back in the spring, but then submitted a report regarding retirement. The materials of the case were transferred to another employee of the Investigative Committee, who, in turn, combined the two criminal cases into one proceeding.
As previously reported by "Kommersant," Kristina and Angelina were being prosecuted under one criminal case, while the investigation regarding Maria was being conducted separately. The reason was that in 2018, the minor Maria was recognized as insane at the time of committing the crime. However, a recent additional forensic psychological-psychiatric examination concluded that Maria no longer requires the medical assistance she previously received on an outpatient basis.
At the same time, she is now even theoretically impossible to hold criminally liable. The murder committed by a group of individuals, attributed to the sisters under Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, is classified as a particularly serious crime, and its statute of limitations is 15 years. However, in Maria's case, since she was a minor at the time of the crime, this period is seven and a half years and expired on January 27 of this year.
The pre-investigation period of the case is currently extended until September 26.
* This text was automatically translated by Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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