Dagestan: a curse-removal pretext used to enter a house, and 128,000 roubles taken from an upstairs bedroom

Proceedings

1. 2019-07-16 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Suleyman-Stalsky District Court, Republic of Dagestan, Russia (Сулейман-Стальский районный суд Республики Дагестан). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО1, was convicted of theft by a group acting in prior conspiracy causing significant damage to a citizen under п.п. «а, в» ч.2 ст.158 of the Criminal Code. The court found that he drove two other participants to a village in the Suleyman-Stalsky District under a plan agreed in advance with roles distributed between them; that he remained in the car watching the surroundings while the other two, having gained the householder's trust, entered the house under the pretext of removing a curse and took 128,000 roubles from an upstairs bedroom in the owner's absence; that he collected them by arrangement after a phone call and drove them from the scene; and that he received 30,000 roubles from the proceeds for his part. The case was heard in the special procedure on his admission. He was sentenced to a fine of 20,000 roubles, his detention was lifted and he was released in the courtroom. 4,000 roubles held as exhibits were treated as returned to the victim.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• roles distributed in advance between three participants, with a vehicle waiting and a lookout posted
• the curse-removal pretext used to gain the householder's trust and secure entry to the home
• the theft carried out from an upstairs bedroom in the owner's absence from the room, so that the pretext supplied both the entry and the time