Ukraine: an aunt and niece convicted after a curse-removal rite was used as cover to swap a woman's savings for souvenir banknotes and tell her to say nothing

Proceedings

1. 2023-01-27 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Kyievo-Sviatoshynskyi District Court, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine (Києво-Святошинський районний суд Київської області). Two defendants, an aunt and her niece, anonymised in the published judgment as ОСОБА_5 and ОСОБА_6, were each convicted of fraud under part 2 of article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and each fined three thousand tax-free minimum incomes, being 51,000 hryvnia. The court approved plea agreements concluded with the prosecutor in November 2022. It found that on 27 September 2022, acting by prior conspiracy 'under the pretext of a rite of divination and the removal of a curse', they approached the victim near her building and told her they could help resolve her health problems by removing a curse. Having gained her confidence they persuaded her to hand over her money; she went home, collected 1,620 US dollars — 59,241.13 hryvnia at the official rate that day — together with 8,200 hryvnia, returned and gave it to them. The first defendant then began performing the rite, speaking as she did so, and while the victim's attention was engaged substituted souvenir banknotes for the genuine money, placed them in a bag and put it in the victim's handbag, instructing her to go home and tell nobody about the rite. The second defendant stood nearby and kept watch. The money was returned to the victim.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• an approach in the street offering to resolve health problems by removing a curse
• a requirement that the victim fetch and hand over her money for the rite to be performed over it
• the performance of the rite as cover for substituting souvenir banknotes for the real money
• an instruction to return home and tell nobody about the rite