Police in Russia’s Ingushetia have refused to initiate a criminal procedure on account of domestic violence suffered by a young woman, 18, who goes by the name Leyla Gireeva, SK SOS, a group helping LGBTQ+ people in the North Caucasus region, has told Novaya-Europe.
Gireeva reported her parents to the police in December, accusing them of day-to-day beatings and insults. The police refused to initiate a criminal procedure for no specific reason despite being obliged to explain this by law. The human rights group SK SOS is planning on appealing the decision.
Leyla Gireeva fled her family home for Saint Petersburg on 14 November. She addressed the human rights group to protect herself from constant domestic violence.
The young woman recorded multiple videos, sharing the details of violence being used against her by her family, including her father. She stressed out that it was her own decision as a full-aged person in legal terms to leave the family home.
“Please do not extradite me to my relatives. They’ll start stuffing five antidepressant pills into me each day to cure me of atheism as they did before. They will hit me with a stick. I don’t want to return to this hell, I will kill myself if I return,” Gireeva said in one of the videos.
Her relatives found the Saint Petersburg apartment she had been hiding in in late November and attempted to break into it. When Gireeva called the police, the latter detained her instead, took her to the police station, and kept her there for a long time.
Thanks to public disclosure and outcry, Gireeva was not delivered to her relatives and was set free after she had had her fingerprints taken. The police did not state the reason why the young woman had been detained.
Gireeva said her mother then started threatening her by falsely reporting her to the police on account of theft. She says the theft was completely made up to help her family use its connections in the police and bring her back home where she would be facing danger.
However, a court in Ingushetia has refused to initiate a criminal procedure against Leyla, the human rights defenders say.