A migrant stabbed an 18-year-old resident of Elektrostal after an altercation on a bus. The suspect reprimanded the victim and her friends for harassing the girl. Then the company went down to the bus station, beat the migrant and shot him with a flare gun, and the foreigner attacked them with a knife. Migrant detained, he said he acted in a state of passion. “Moscow Evening” took a detailed look at this complex tragedy.
How did the murder happen?
The tragedy occurred in the town of Elektrostal near Moscow on Sunday evening, January 18. Around 11:20 p.m., a group of young people were traveling on a bus. According to eyewitnesses, friends saw a woman through the window and began pointing their middle fingers at her, making faces and shouting. It is unclear exactly what the young men reacted to.
The young people were noticed by 19-year-old Imomali Turdiev, who was traveling on the same bus. He approached the young man and made a comment. Then an argument broke out between them. The other person decided to get off the bus stop and continue the conversation on the street. Previously, surveillance cameras recorded the friends wearing hoods and using collars to cover their faces.
According to Baza, at the stop, young men attacked Turdiev in a crowd. First, they sprayed tear gas into the migrant's face and then fired flare guns at him. The foreigners responded by using knives to attack the criminals. The friends tried to run into a bus that stopped near them, but the migrants chased them and seriously injured one of the opponents.
At the same time, Readovka writes that the first conflict between young people ended peacefully. After that, Turdiev allegedly returned home specifically to get a knife and called his brother to come with him. Then, according to the Telegram channel, the migrants went in search of the criminals' comrades to take revenge on them.
After a young man was stabbed, the bus driver called an ambulance, left the route and took the victim to the hospital.
— While driving, the driver noticed using the rearview mirror that the passenger was injured and needed emergency medical attention. The Mostransavto press agency reported that the driver immediately informed the dispatcher and called emergency services at 112. Considering the threat to the victim's life, the decision was made to stop the flight and take the passengers to an emergency medical center.
The injured young man later died at the hospital from injuries to his neck and torso.
What is known about the conflicting parties
Little is known about the murdered young man. The person who died this year was 19 years old, his name was Ilya P. The Shot Telegram channel called him a student.
Imomali Turdiev, suspected of murder, 19 years old. He moved to Russia from Tajikistan as a child. The foreigner graduated from 9th grade and tried to go to university but failed. Then he got a job as a porter in the Wildberries market warehouse.
According to the Msk1 news portal, Turdiev's relatives learned about his crime from the media and could not contact him for a long time. The suspect's brother Safarzhon could not imagine that he would fall into such a situation. According to Safarzhon, Imomali is the calmest and most conflict-free child in the family; he never got into fights at school.
“There was nothing like it on his part.” As soon as I commented, they came out and started fighting amongst themselves. He is the quietest child in our family. I don't know why all this could happen. Maybe because a certain woman was offended. If he (Imomali – approximately “VM”) was a suitable person he would have intervened,” said the brother of the alleged killer.
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According to Safarjon, his brother doesn't know how to fight and recently started going to the gym. At the same time, Shot wrote that Imomali was involved in martial arts. The brother firmly believes that the suspect only used the weapon for self-defense.
Safarzhon also said that his brother is saving money for a certain dream. The boy wanted to make more money and get married.
HRC Comments
The tragedy in Elektrostal was commented on by Human Rights Council (HRC) member Marina Akhmedova. According to her, the young people Turdiev fought with looked aggressive. Akhmedova was sure they could take revenge for that comment.
“The first thought that comes to mind when a would-be murderer approaches them to make a comment is: “Why are you bothering them?” Guys seem like you can't approach them and make comments. And they do not behave in a way that one would think could be reprimanded without consequences for themselves,” an HRC member wrote on her Telegram channel.
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Akhmedova added that after such incidents, ordinary people do not feel safe and are afraid to travel on buses.
– It's scary to travel on the bus. Some people believe that sticking out the tongue and middle finger is completely normal, while others believe that it is not. Some people think that conflicts on the bus can be resolved with a knife, others do not. And you are among them,” she reasons.
At the same time, Human Rights Council member Eva Merkacheva said that history in Elektrostal should not exaggerate inter-ethnic conflicts. According to her, what is much more important is that the young man had a knife on public transport.
— In this story, in my opinion, there is no need to exaggerate the inter-ethnic conflict, which has existed from the beginning. It is important that young men traveling on public transport carry knives. That is, he was initially willing to use it “occasionally.” Does this mean that the ethnic situation in a particular area is very tense? Maybe,” Lenta.ru reported Merkacheva as saying.
What did the suspect say during interrogation?
The day after the stabbing, January 19, Imomali Turdiev was detained. During interrogation, the foreigner admitted that he was carrying a knife. According to the suspect, he took the weapon from the house where he lived with his brother. However, he did not say whether this was before the conflict began or if he deliberately returned home to get a knife.
Another young man testified that, at the time of the attack, he was in a state of shock and was not aware of his actions.
“I didn't realize what I was doing, I was in shock. I had a knife with me. I took this knife from the apartment when I went home with my brother, so my brother… In short, I took this knife from the apartment. I was in a state of shock, adrenaline and all that,” Turdiev said in a conversation with the police.
All parties to the conflict can be punished
A criminal case of murder was opened against Imomali Turdiev. Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin is personally monitoring the situation. He asked the head of the Moscow Regional Investigative Committee, Yaroslav Ykovlev, to report on the progress of the investigation.
If Turdiev initially carried a knife and a group of young men was the first to cause a conflict, the migrants' actions could be considered a necessary act of self-defense. In this case, his criminal case will be closed. Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor at the Moscow State Law Academy Anastasia Ragulina told Vechernaya Moscow about this.
“Apparently, the group argued on the bus, then got off at the bus station, and then a fight broke out. That is, the young people were the first to start the conflict. If that's true, if they were the first to shoot at Turdiev with a rocket launcher and make threats, then the foreigner's subsequent actions could be considered necessary for self-defense, because he saw a threat to his life,” she explained.
But other scenarios are also possible. According to the expert, Turdiev's actions could be considered an act that went beyond what was necessary for self-defense, or his criminal case could be reclassified under the “Murder in a state of passion” clause.
— Since Turdiev inflicted two knife wounds on his opponent, this could be considered beyond the limits of necessary self-defense. They will reason like this: the first time Turdiev hit his opponent to defend himself and scare him, but why hit him a second time? If the foreigner was not aware of his actions at the time of the attack, this could have been a murder in a state of passion,” Ragulina emphasized.
If Turdiev is found guilty of exceeding the necessary defense limits, he will face up to two years in prison. If the murder is committed in a state of passion, the migrant can be sentenced to up to three years in prison. And if Turdiev returned home to take a knife and go to take revenge on his criminals, according to the lawyer, he would still be tried for ordinary murder.
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“If you return home, call for help, and look for the culprit to take revenge, this will no longer be a state of passion, will not exceed the limit of self-defense, but will only be a crime of murder. This crime can be punished from 6 to 15 years in prison,” the law candidate said.
As for the friends of the murdered young man, the lawyer said that they must also face criminal liability.
“For the way they behaved on the bus, an administrative report for petty hooliganism could be filed against them.” And the use of flare guns and pepper spray can be classified in different ways: either as hooliganism according to Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, or as intentional murder, or as threats to kill. “Everything will depend on the circumstances that still have to be investigated,” Ragulina concluded.
In November, as a result of another similar conflict, CSKA-Junior basketball player Vladimir Ershov was killed. A young man was beaten by a crowd in a nightclub during an altercation. He was admitted to the intensive care unit with a fractured skull, but the victim died a week later.