Three sisters stabbed their father to death after years of torture and rape

Married I was 17 Angelina 18 and Krestina At 19 when, tired of his father’s repeated violence, they took a drastic decision: to kill him while he was asleep. Police found the body of Mikhail Khachaturyan in the family apartment on Altufevskoe Avenue in Moscow, Russia. At first glance, I had several cuts to the neck and head.

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On July 27, 2018, Mikhail returned home after receiving medical treatment at the Solovyov Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Moscow. Upon entering his apartment, the 57-year-old father felt his daughters had not ordered and brutally punished them: one by one he locked them in a room and threw pepper spray in their faces. Krestina passed out from an asthma attack and that’s when her sisters decided that this day would be the last day they would suffer the abuse.

The night of the murder

During the night, when her father rested in an armchair, Angelina and Maria they stabbed him with a hunting knife and also beat him with a hammer. Mikhail woke up and tried to defend himself. Krestina, hearing the noise, joined in the attack and with the pepper spray that her father had used, she wanted to prevent him from catching one of her sisters.

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Amid the fighting between the Khachaturyan family, Angelina grabbed the knife from Maria’s hands and gave her the death blow to his father in the heart. A few minutes later, the sisters cut their arms while trying to fake an attack from their father. The young women were responsible for calling the police, who arrested them on their arrival.

They were arrested for premeditated murder, a crime which was later compounded in homicide committed by a group of people or the result of a conspiracy.

The judicial inquiry

Justice easily detected the long history of violence within the family. For at least 3 years before the murder, Mikhail regularly beat his daughters, tortured and sexually abused them. Sometimes he would keep them locked up and use a bell to call them when he needed something.

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Aurelia Dunduk, the mother of the girls, told Mikhail’s violent story to the judge and prosecutors. The beatings started when she was 19 and pregnant with her son Sergey. According to Aurelia, the beatings continued for 20 years. When her ex-husband stopped hitting her, she might ask him to make her some tea.

The woman also said that Mikhail beat Sergey and kicked him out of the house when he started high school. Aurelia separated in 2015 and left the department where they were his exposo with his three daughters.

Lawyers for the Khachaturyan sisters insisted that the investigation should recognize self-defense as the main motive for the crime. The judge admitted that Khachaturyan’s father had “immoral actions” towards his daughters and confirmed the acts of sexual and psychological violence.

Despite this, justice continues to accuse them of “plot to assassinate a group “, with a sentence of 8 to 20 years in prison. This sparked outrage from the defense because while Mikahel’s years of abuse against his daughters are acknowledged, the prosecution does not consider self-defense.

Impact on Russia

The case of the sisters Khachaturian This provoked a strong reaction from public opinion and for several months all Russian television channels spoke of the murder of the violent father. In Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities, The demonstrators took to the streets to demand the release of Maria, Angelina and Krestina.

A petition calling for the murder charge to be turned into self-defense has received more than 100,000 signatures. Women’s rights activists say sisters should receive psychological rehabilitation rather than jail time and demand that the father be tried posthumously, which could happen.

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The role of the Russian police has also come under heavy criticism for failing to take action against Mikhail after his ex-wife’s physical abuse complaint. Police officers generally treating domestic violence as a family problem and they provide little or no assistance to victims.

Meanwhile, the sisters are still awaiting their sentence and their defense lawyers want their case to be heard in the courts. sets a precedent in the case law on the self-defense of victims of sexual abuse.