Police in the republic of Ingushetia have refused to initiate a criminal procedure for domestic violence suffered by a young woman, the North Caucasus (NC) SOS, a group helping LGBTQ+ people in the region, has told Novaya Europe.
Leyla Gireyeva reported her parents to the police in December, accusing them of day-to-day beatings and insults. The police refused to initiate criminal proceedings, despite being obliged to by law. NC SOS plans to appeal the decision.
Gireyeva fled her family home for Saint Petersburg on 14 November. She appealed to the human rights group to protect her from constant domestic violence.
She recorded multiple videos, sharing the details of violence against her from her family, including her father. She stressed that it was her own decision as a legal adult 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,” Gireyeva said in one of the videos.
Her relatives found the St. Petersburg apartment she had been hiding in in late November and attempted to break into it. When Gireyeva called the police, they detained her, took her to the police station, and kept her there for a protracted period.
Thanks to public disclosure and outcry, Gireyeva was not delivered to her relatives and was set free after she had had her fingerprints taken. The police did not state why had been detained.
Gireyeva said her mother then started threatening her by falsely reporting her to the police for 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 in danger.
However, a court in Ingushetia has refused to initiate a criminal procedure against Gireyeva, the human rights defenders say.