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Murder Trial of 3 Teenage Sisters Changing Russian Minds on Domestic Violence

Jamie Dettmer

   MOSCOW - Russian lawyer Mari Davtyan has built a reputation as a go-to
   advocate for women abused by spouses, boyfriends and fathers. Now she's
   defending three teenage sisters who battered and stabbed their father
   to death in his sleep in their Moscow apartment after allegedly
   suffering physical and sexual abuse from him for years.

   She believes the Khachaturyan sisters' case is helping to shift Russian
   attitudes toward domestic abuse and how victims should be treated.

   Police investigators have confirmed the girls' father, 57-year-old
   Mikhail Khachaturyan, abused the teenagers for years, regularly beating
   and torturing them as well as sexually assaulting them. A regular
   churchgoer, the rage-filled abuser saw himself as a righteous man and
   considered domestic violence as no sin -- a not uncommon view among
   Russian men.

   However, the shocking case of the Khachaturyan sisters -- Angelina,
   Maria and Kristina -- may mark a turning point when it comes to
   attitudes, even of men, toward domestic abuse. Moreover, it is adding
   public pressure on judges and the government to rethink how they treat
   domestic abuse victims, the Armenian-born Davtyan said.

   Davtyan acknowledges that in the last few years domestic violence and
   abuse has started to be taken more seriously in Russia. There are,
   however, no laws protecting domestic abuse victims and in 2017 there
   was an outcry when a new law offered only a fine or two-week sentence
   for a first-time offender who beats up a family member. Many police
   still ignore domestic abuse complaints, dismissing violence within
   homes as a "family issue."

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