The Moscow Times, Russia
June 9 2005

A Woman’s Right to Self-Defense

By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer

Prosecutors are asking the Moscow City Court to overturn a woman’s
murder conviction on the grounds that she acted in self-defense
against a man who was trying to rape her.

In what is being seen as a landmark ruling on a woman’s right to
self-defense, the City Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday asked the court
to overturn a verdict last Thursday by the Lyublinsky District Court.

Alexandra Ivannikova, 29, stabbed Sergei Bagdasaryan, 23, in the
thigh with a knife after waving down his car for a ride in December
2003. The knife struck Bagdasaryan in an artery, and he was dead by
the time police arrived at the scene.

The Lyublinsky court found Ivannikova guilty of murder and gave her a
suspended sentence. District prosecutors had sought a three-year
prison sentence.

In their appeal, city prosecutors said that Ivannikova’s actions “did
not constitute a crime,” spokesman Sergei Marchenko said by telephone
Wednesday. “The district prosecutor has expressed her opinion. We
disagreed and said so.”

City prosecutors appeared to have taken note of public outcry over
the conviction. Ivannikova’s relatives and independent observers had
expressed dismay at the original verdict of the district court, which
found her guilty despite accepting that she had acted in self-defense
to avoid being raped.

“This is a landmark case, not because it is a victory for justice but
one for public opinion, which is still taken into account sometimes,”
said Yulia Latynina, who hosts a show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

The prosecutors’ decision to seek to overturn the conviction came as
a surprise to Ivannikova and her lawyer.

“I sighed with relief when I got a suspended sentence last week, and
I cannot say how surprised I was to learn the prosecutors are on my
side,” Ivannikova said by telephone. “I realize that this is not over
yet and no one knows which decision the city court will take.”

Ivannikova’s lawyer, Alexei Parshin, said, “It is no secret that our
judges are reluctant to acquit defendants, especially on murder
charges.”

No date for the city court hearing has been set.

Ivannikova got into Bagdasaryan’s Lada car in southern Moscow on Dec.
8, 2003, after he agreed to take her home for 100 rubles, according
to court documents. She became alarmed after she noticed that he had
passed her house and turned instead into a dark side street near
Donetskaya Ulitsa.

Bagdasaryan parked the car and locked the doors. Ivannikova testified
that he then pulled his pants down and attempted to undress her,
despite her protests. Ivannikova said she eventually managed to take
a kitchen knife out of her purse and stab him in the leg.

Then she got out the car and ran away. She stopped a police car and
told officers what she had done, but by the time they found
Bagdasaryan he was already dead.

Parshin, Ivannikova’s lawyer, insisted that his client had acted in
self-defense, and that she had carried the knife for self-protection
after being raped at the age of 16.

Nikolai Rylatko, a lawyer for Sergei Bagdasaryan’s father, Andrei,
said in remarks published Wednesday in Gazeta that he was preparing
to appeal the Lyublinsky court sentence as too mild, and criticized
prosecutors for making what he called a political decision.

A small crowd from the Movement Against Illegal Immigration and other
radical nationalist groups rallied outside Lyublinsky court in
Ivannikova’s defense last week in an apparent attempt to whip up
racial prejudice against Bagdasaryan, an ethnic Armenian.

But Parshin insisted that race was not a factor in the case, and that
Ivannikova was not seeking the nationalists’ support.

Dmitry Olshansky, a prominent defense lawyer, said that in the past
those accused of killing in self-defense had been routinely sentenced
to prison terms, but that this policy was slowly changing, with more
leniency being shown to defendants.

The turning point was the adoption of an amendment to the Criminal
Code late last year that rejected the concept of adequate response,
he said.

“Earlier, if one was attacked by a fist, he was allowed by law to
defend himself only with a fist and not with a knife or a gun,”
Olshansky said. “Now, someone defending himself and his property can
use a gun against anyone trying to get into his apartment, regardless
of whether the intruder is armed or not.”

According to Interior Ministry statistics, about 8,000 rapes and
attempted rapes were recorded last year.

Olshansky said that although the number of rape cases that reached
court was quite large, it were only the tip of the iceberg.
“Policemen often try to prevent these cases from being recorded in
order to keep good clear-up rates,” he said.

Staff Writer Nabi Abdullaev contributed to this report.