Russia: a 'prepared legend', a shill who says her disabled son was cured, and a sock of cut newspaper

Proceedings

1. 2019-08-15 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Kirovsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia (Кировский районный суд г. Красноярска). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО2, was convicted of fraud causing significant damage to a citizen under ч.2 ст.159 of the Criminal Code. The court found that she and an unidentified person saw the victim in a courtyard, formed a prior conspiracy and distributed roles between them: the defendant was to approach the victim — chosen because her age made her, in their assessment, trusting and susceptible to psychological influence — claim powers of clairvoyance, deliver a prepared account that a curse dangerous to her life and health lay upon her, and offer healing by a magical ritual requiring her money, an egg and her photograph, all to be cleansed by prayer; the unidentified person was to appear at the right moment and confirm that the defendant was a healer who had previously cured her own son of cerebral palsy by removing a curse. The money was to be brought in a black sock, which the pair would swap for an identical sock containing cut newspaper. The court found the plan executed: the defendant approached the victim, told her she looked unwell and that a curse was upon her, and the substitution was carried out, the victim being told to go home and not to check the sock for three days. The loss was 15,000 roubles. She was sentenced to two years' deprivation of liberty; her suspended sentence under an earlier judgment of the Bratsk City Court was revoked under ч.4 ст.74 and, by partial addition of the unserved part under ст.70, a final term of three years in a correctional colony was imposed.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• a victim selected in advance because, in the participants' shared assessment, her age made her «доверчива, восприимчива и подвергаемая психологическому воздействию» — trusting, susceptible and subject to psychological influence
• a «заранее подготовленная легенда», a script prepared before the approach, which the court sets out as agreed between them
• the curse presented as dangerous to life and health, and healing offered as the remedy
• a corroborator claiming the healer had cured her son of cerebral palsy by removing a curse, so that the claim was vouched for by an apparent beneficiary
• the ritual requiring the victim's own money, an egg and her photograph, all to be cleansed by prayer
• the money brought in a black sock and swapped for an identical sock filled with cut newspaper
• the victim instructed to go home and not to check the sock for three days, which deferred discovery