Russia: a court records the mechanism directly — victims 'under her psychological influence' after talk of their health

Proceedings

1. 2017-09-18 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Moskalensky District Court, Omsk Oblast, Russia (Москаленский районный суд Омской области). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО4, was convicted on two counts of fraud, one under ч.2 ст.159 of the Criminal Code and one under ч.1 ст.159. On 19 April 2017 at about 10:40, being lawfully in the first victim's house, she deceived her as to the curative power of the acts she performed — ostensibly to remove a curse and treat her — and as to her intention to return what was handed over, and asked for the gold earrings the victim was wearing. The court found the victim acted while «под её психическим воздействием, вызванным разговором на темы о здоровье» — under the defendant's psychological influence, produced by conversation about her own health and that of her relatives — and gave up 583-standard gold earrings set with a stone, weighing 8.01 grams and valued at 20,000 roubles. On 22 April 2017 between 09:30 and 10:00 the same pattern was repeated at a second house, the curse removal and treatment offered for that victim's family, obtaining 2,800 roubles in cash and a Tele-2 Mini mobile telephone, a loss of 5,200 roubles. The court recorded the first victim's circumstances in assessing significance: a pension of 10,000 roubles a month, no home of her own, living with her daughter. All property was recovered — the earrings surrendered voluntarily by the defendant's son, the cash returned at a police station — and no civil claim was brought. She received one year three months on the ч.2 count and 280 hours of compulsory labour on the ч.1 count, aggregated by partial addition under ч.2 ст.69 to one year four months' deprivation of liberty, suspended under ст.73 with a probationary period of the same length.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• entry to both homes obtained lawfully — the court records her as «находясь правомерно в доме» — so no trespass was needed and no alarm raised
• conversation steered onto the victim's own health and the health of her relatives, which the court found produced «психическое воздействие», psychological influence, on the victim
• deception as to «целебной силы совершаемых ею действий» — the curative power of the acts she performed — for removing a curse and treating the family
• property requested with a promise of return that the court found she never intended to keep, so the transaction presented as lending rather than paying
• victims selected among elderly people of very limited means: one was a pensioner on 10,000 roubles a month with no home of her own