Dagestan: abductor of minor for marriage is at large

In Dagestan, an abductor of a minor girl with the aim to marry her was not detained. The girl has confessed that she had voluntarily agreed to be abducted; therefore, no criminal case was opened on this fact, the law enforcement bodies of the republic have reported.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 2, in the village of Babayurt, a 24-year-old unemployed local resident abducted a 17-year-old girl with the aim to marry her and took her away to the village of Sulevkent in the neighbouring district of the republic. After receiving the information about the abduction from the girl's relatives, a few hours later, the police detained the groom and returned the girl home.

For Dagestan, the problem of girls' abduction for marriage remains topical, says the republic's prosecutor's office. In most cases, it turns out after checks that girls go away with their abductors voluntarily; however, there are cases, when girls are abducted against their will.

According to Tatiana Golubova, the head of the press service of the prosecutor's office, for the prevention of abductions, prosecutors of towns and districts were asked to cover this issue in the media, organize roundtables and meetings with the population with the involvement of clergymen to explain that such abductions result in criminal cases, conflicts among families, mental sufferings of abducted girls and short-lived marriages.

Most of these cases pass unnoticed by law enforcement bodies, said Zakir Magomedov, the editor-in-chief of the Internet portal "Daptar", dedicated to problems of Dagestani women.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.