Katmandhu Women Jail

http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?&nid=96768

Russian languishing in Nepali prison

BY KOSH RAJ KOIRALA ( Непальский Журналист)

 

 

KATHMANDU, Jan 6 – 2007 – She has already been detained for six months. Though police investigation found she was not involved in the murder she was accused of, Irina Rudikh, a Russian national, is not sure how many more months, possibly years, she will have to languish in a Nepali prison.Rudikh, a spiritual practitioner, was arrested by Kathmandu District Police on August 9, 2006 on charges of killing Rooku Nepal, 20, a Nepali girl. The girl worked as a domestic in her rented apartment at Dhapasi. As the body of the slain girl was found in a suitcase at Sallaghari area of Bhaktapur, Rudikh was sent to District Police Office, Bhaktapur for necessary investigation.Rudikh said she had gone to Kopan Monastery for a 15-day retreat on July 15, leaving a spare key of her apartment with Rooku. The key was meant for the girl to come to the apartment to clean it.”I do not exactly remember the date. It must be July 24 or 25, Rooku’s parents came to the Monastery saying their daughter did not return home,” she recalled. “We went together to the apartment at Dhapasi but found that $ 2,500 in cash and other valuables in the room were missing.”Rudhikh then shifted to Dragon Guest House, Bouddha, after the completion of her retreat at the monastery. The body of the missing girl was found in a suitcase at Sallaghari area of Bhaktapur on August 9. On the same day, Rudikh was arrested by police on charges of killing the girl. According to officials at Charkhal jail, another Russian national is also at the prison in connection with the same incident (Антон Палаткин) Anton Palatkin.A police team led by Inspector Dharma Raj Sunuwar had investigated the case of Rooku. After nearly a month of investigation, police filed a case against Rudikh at District Court Bhaktapur. However, the court on September 9 passed a verdict to keep her in prison for investigation.”Since we are not fully sure that you are innocent, we are sending you to jail,” Rudikh, with her eyes full of tears, quoted her translator as explaining the court verdict. “I repeatedly pleaded with them [judges] to go to Kopan monastery to get evidence of my innocence. But no one listened to me.”

A permanent resident of Rostov of Russia, she has been kept in the Charkhal prison since then. Her lawyer knocked on the door of Appellate Court Patan for her release but in vain. The court on December 22 passed a similar verdict to keep her in prison for ‘further investigation’.

Concerned investigation officials, however, claim that she was not found involved in the incident. “We arrested her [Rudhikh] just because kin of the murdered girl pointedly charged her with the murder. We did not find her involvement in the murder in course of our investigation,” police Inspector Sunuwar told the Post. “We have done our job. It is up to the court now to make final verdict on her,” he added.

According to him, if Rudhikh was a Nepali national, she could have been released on the condition of presenting herself before the the court as and when asked. “But that is not possible in a case of a foreigner.”

�Russian Embassy did not help!�

Rudikh alleged that Russian Embassy in Nepal remained indifferent to her case. According to her, she was once approached by an official from the Embassy. “We can not do anything to you. We do not have contacts with the interior ministry in Nepal,” she quoted a Russian Embassy official as telling her when she pleaded for help.

Rudhikh, a divorcee with an 18-year old daughter in Russia, said that she has very little means to pay for a proper lawyer. “This may cause her to languish in a Nepali prison for several years,” said a police officer, preferring anonymity.

 

 

26 december 2007

Even without proves that shows that my mother is guilty , being innocent ,  it has been judged for 20 years of jail in Katmandhu, for nothing.

The lawyer didnt come to the judgment where the judge had judged her, so she stayed there alone without any lawyer who could protect her and any translator to make more easy the process .

And although the Judgment have received a letter from Kopan  (the monastery in which my mother lived while the murder has been committed)  that proves her inocence , the father and the brother of Rooku decided to come to the judgment to blame my mother in the murder without any proves!!! ( few months ago they wrote to MID that if someone will give to them some money-compansation for the murder of their daughter and sister Rooku , they will stop to search for the real killer and relax about the case , but they didnt recieved any compansation so they appeared in the judgment)  and with any reason and any proves  the Nepalese court apeal  – 20 years of jail for my mother.

She is totally inocent and nobody can understand what is the reason about the desicion of the court

I cant talk with my mother , she cant call to her family from the prison , the lawyer says that he cant visit her becaouse of his allways busy time , he cant give to her my mails and the mails of my grandmom (the mother of Irina Roudikh) , and no one knows whats about her mental – emotional and physical state -

The lawyer say that in 10 or 15 days he will go to the High Nepalese Court to please them to study that case and start another court to set her free , becaouse everyone knows that she is inocent .

We all hope that someone could help us , maybe with some information , maybe someone knows something about the law rooles of Nepal , the MID dont help us , the Russian Consul dont help us too , we dont know how to contact with any press , and if the highest court will start their own investigation , will my mother stay alive at that moment ?

Yana Blinder.

 

Merry Christmas .