“Took me to a forest, to a secluded place. “And yelled at me: ‘Put your hands on the tree!'”
“I wept, shouted and begged him not to do me harm.”
“He told me it to not look and began to cut me with your hands”.
This is the story of the Russian Margarita Gracheva, 26, victim of violence from their spouse.
In December 2017, after leaving the children in the nursery, her now ex-husband Dmitry Grachev took Margaret to a forest on the outskirts of Moscow.
There he made turnstiles in his arms and cut off both hands with an axe.
Thereafter, bleeding took her to the hospital and gave doctors a box with the right hand of your spouse. Then surrendered to police.
The case of Margaret put in relief the little severe Russian laws on domestic violence, who are after in 2017 various crimes fueraneliminados of the penal code.
Her ex-husband was convicted Thursday and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Threats one month before that Margarita was attacked with the AX, his spouse had threatened with a knife.
“He took a knife and put it in my throat. And he repeated: ‘ admit it! I are cheating or not? “, said Margaret to the BBC.
“When I went to the police I was sure that they would come the next day and would do something. But it did not.”
“The police told me: ‘ you will make peace.” This is not important ‘. At the beginning of December, the case was closed. Three days later, took me to the forest and cut me with your hands”, he said.
Laws in February 2017, Russian Congress eliminated some of the laws of the penal code punishing domestic abuse.
The first assaults where the victim is not hospitalized are no longer treated as criminal offences and punishments were reduced.
This decision prompted protests from activists in the streets of Russia.
A report from the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) warns that the change in the law deprives women of key protection.
From the Russian Government, they dismissed the HRW report saying that dozens of interviews do not represent the reality of the country.
In the case of Daisy, as in the of many other women in Russia, physical abuse began when her husband began to beat him.
At first “I thought that something strange happened. It is described only as an administrative case and not a crime. Hit someone and you are only punishable by a fine.”
“In my case, it was fined 10,000 rubles (US$ 150)”, he described.
The ex-husband of Margaret trial was on trial accused of kidnapping, threatening death and seriously injure his spouse.
In the judicial process, he confessed to cutting off the hands of Margarita.
On Thursday, the man was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Also banned from access to her two children.
“My children don’t know what happened. They think that I had an accident. It is difficult for them. I don’t know how you explain it”, he said.
“For me, the best would have been to give him life imprisonment. That would keep me safe. If, eventually, lived nearby, that will not be safe either for me or for the children”.
Recovery “my left hand was lost in the forest. She was later found. I was shattered with the bones broken in eight parts. They transplanted me skin and veins”, said Margarita.
People from all over the world sent him donations that reached the US$ 65,000 so that women could have a Bionic right hand.
It is currently being repaired in Germany.
