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and her baby to a safe place. The author reported the incident to the police the same
day. A record that she had sustained a bruise in the occipital area was made.
2.9 X. was scared and applied for assistance from a State-financed social aid centre
for families and children in Krasnogvardeisky District in Saint Petersburg. On 7 May
2013, she was placed in a State-run shelter in Saint Petersburg, but K. continued to
harass her regardless.
2.10 On 3 June 2013, K. punched X. in the jaw, when she was at a tram stop. K. ’s
mother was present. The author sought medical assistance. A record of the soft tissue
bruise in the chin area was drawn up and transmitted to the police. The police recorded
the incident on 5 June 2013.
2.11 During the subsequent year, the author tried unsuccessfully to initiate criminal
proceedings against K. The violence that she was being subjected to continued.
2.12 X. explains that she filed a complaint regarding the abuse with the district
branch of the office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on 4 July 2013 and reported all
the violent incidents mentioned above. She provided the contact details of 12
witnesses and indicated that she resided in a shelter out of fear. Her complaint was
forwarded to police department No. 26 and registered there on 9 July 2013. On 17 July
2013, the district police refused to initiate criminal proceedings. On 19 August 2013,
the refusal was quashed by a prosecutor as unlawful because of the incompleteness
of the investigation, and the case was sent back for further investigation.
2.13 In the course of the additional investigation, the district police were informed
that K. had been convicted in 2009 for battery, death threats and verbal abuse and
given a one-year suspended sentence. In 2013, the criminal investigation department
of the Krasnogvardeisky District of Saint Petersburg released K, asking him not to
leave the country during an investigation into an alleged theft. On 21 September, a
witness, L.M., stated to the police that he had never seen the author ’s husband hit her,
but that he had seen bruises, and that she had told him that she had been beaten, that
her husband constantly argued with her and that he insulted and beat the children, too.
The police still failed to take any action, and the author requested the hospitals at
which she had been treated to provide her with the relevant documentation.
2.14 On 25 September, 30 October and 28 November 2013, the district police refused
to initiate criminal proceedings against K. Those decisions were overturned, however,
by the prosecutor’s office on 30 September, 5 November and 5 December 2013,
respectively. The author was not informed of any further action taken by the police.
2.15 X. submits that police department No. 13 reviewed her complaint regarding the
incident of 3 June 2013. During a police interview, K. and his mother did not deny
that he had hit the author in the face. On 10 June 2013, the district police refused to
initiate criminal proceedings owing to the absence of a complaint by the victim. A
prosecutor quashed that decision on 14 June 2014 owing to the incomplete
investigations. The district police again refused to open a criminal case on 16 July
and 7 October 2013; those decisions were quashed by a prosecutor on 22 July and
11 October 2013, respectively. On 14 October 2013, the author requested police
department No. 13 to open a criminal case under article 20 (4) of the Criminal
Procedure Code. She claimed that, given that she did not have legal training or the
financial means to hire a lawyer and, as a result of the threats and violence to which
she had been subjected, she lived in a shelter far from the court, her attendance in
court would interfere with the care of her children, in particular the constant medical
care that her younger daughter needed, and would be incompatible with her
psychological rehabilitation.
2.16 On an unspecified date, the district police refused to initi ate a criminal case,
finding no grounds to open a case under article 20 (4) of the Criminal Procedure Code,
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