Feedback “In autumn 2013 criminal case proceedings started in Saint Petersburg regarding the murder of a year and a half Roma boy Maxim Szabov. The prosecuted, a 23 -year-old woman, Zhanna Lakatosz , lived together with Szabov at the same Roma settlement. Hungarian Roma settlement near metro station “Rybatskoye” had been in existence for about ten years now. The prosecution was not embarrassed by the fact that the alleged murderer of a child, Lakatosz, had been already in a detention centre at the alleged time of the crime, having been charged with stealing a mobile phone. But there is a testimony in her favor by an eleven year-old boy, the witness of the crime. However, according to the prosecutor, this doesn’t support her case and somehow has no effect on the court proceedings. Lenta.ru correspondent went to Saint Petersburg to look deeper into this case and to find out why this Roma settlement for a long time had been known only to the human rights defenders and the police.”
ADC “Memorial” participates in the court proceedings, providing legal and other defense to the witness. From the very beginning this criminal case looked very suspicious: it was the Roma settlement residents themselves, who had reported the murder of a child, the accused woman had already been held in detention on the alleged day of the murder, the examination had not established the exact date of the child’s death and testimonies of the witnesses contradict each other. ADC “Memorial” helped the main witness of the murder, a child himself, to testify in court. The witness courageously give truthful testimony not only against a person who posed danger to him, but also against the charges of the prosecution. We now strive to establish the truth in this case and provide protection for children and women as victims of double and triple discrimination in such difficult situations.
Report by Lenta.ru (in Russian): “And so it happened like this, a Roma was killed”