Russia: two women on a footpath, one said to have the power to heal, and a charm laid on cash and gold

Proceedings

1. 2017-12-14 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Tikhvin City Court, Leningrad Oblast, Russia (Тихвинский городской суд Ленинградской области). Two defendants, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО1 and ФИО2, were convicted of fraud by a group acting in prior conspiracy causing significant damage to a citizen under ч.2 ст.159 of the Criminal Code. The court found that on 10 May 2017 between 09:00 and 13:00, on a footpath in Tikhvin, they told the victim falsely that she was under a curse and that the second defendant had the power to heal people, and offered her healing by performing a charm-rite of curse removal upon her cash and gold; that the victim, misled and wishing to be healed, agreed; and that at a second address the second defendant received the money and gold from her for the rite. The recorded losses include sums of 30,000, 28,000 and 50,000 roubles, totalling 108,000 roubles. The first defendant was sentenced to one year eight months' deprivation of liberty and, by partial addition under ч.5 ст.69 with a sentence imposed by the same court on 18 August 2017, to a final term of three years six months in a general-regime correctional colony.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• a pair approach on a public footpath, one making the diagnosis and vouching for the other's power before that other spoke
• the healing offered as a «обряд заговора снятия порчи» — a charm-rite of curse removal — laid on the victim's cash and gold
• the property therefore required to be present and surrendered for the rite, rather than paid as a fee
• the transaction moved to a second location away from where the approach was made