Russian Woman’s Manslaughter Sentence Delayed to 2024

VOA News
August 17, 2010 at 12:15 pm

Russian news reports say a Siberian court has ruled that a woman convicted of killing a girl and maiming another in a driving accident does not have to begin serving her prison term until 2024.

The court in the Siberian city of Irkutsk sentenced the woman to three years in prison Tuesday for a crash last December in which she smashed into two sisters on a sidewalk near Baikal State University. But the judge postponed her sentence until her newborn baby reaches age 14.

The defendant is the daughter of a regional election official. Her perceived preferential court treatment has triggered a public outcry.

A camera caught the accident and showed the defendant getting out of her car after striking the girls. She is seen walking around the car checking it for damage rather than helping the victims.

One sister died of her injuries while the other was left physically handicapped.

Russia’s Ekho Moskvy radio quotes a defense lawyer as saying the deferred sentence falls within the parameters of judicial reform called for last year by President Dmitri Medvedev. Some information in this story was provided by Bloomberg and Reuters.