Chechen Prosecutor's Office orders militia to investigate attacks on women without headscarves

The Office has cancelled the decision of the republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) not to open criminal cases on the facts of shelling women without headscarves from paintball guns in Grozny. This is stated in a letter by Ivan Sydoruk, Deputy Prosecutor General, published today on the website of Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin.

The response to Mr Lukin runs that in 2010 three complaints arrived to law enforcement bodies of Chechnya from citizens about the fire opened by unknown persons from paintball guns at women who appeared in the streets without proper Islamic traditional headgear.

According to Ivan Sydoruk, employees of the Chechen MIA conducted checks on these applications, but they resulted in the decision not to institute criminal proceedings.

The republic's Prosecutor's Office cancelled the above decisions, finding the checks incomplete, and moved a presentation to the Minister of Internal Affairs asking to eliminate the violations and bring those guilty persons to responsibility.

Besides, the letter says, on the fact of publishing on the Internet of a video depicting shooting by unknown assailants of women in V. V. Putin Avenue in Grozny, the Prosecutor's Office made the decision to send the relevant material to decide on criminal prosecution under Article 213 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism).