Russian man spared jail for murdering his wife because he fought against Ukraine

A Russian court has ruled that a soldier who killed his wife should not go to prison, the mitigating circumstance being his participation in the war against Ukraine.

Source: Telegram-based news outlet Agentstvo (Agency), referring to the court register of the Russian Federation

Details: The media outlet noted that Russian "war veterans" have long been given lighter sentences. However, this is the first reported case in which the war has been a mitigating circumstance in a murder.

Private Eduard Bitarov was found guilty of murder in the heat of passion, for which Russian law provides a sentence of up to three years in prison.

However, the court decided to reduce it to a restriction on military service with a deduction of 10% of the allowance to the state treasury.

The court deemed the defendant’s participation in the war against Ukraine and his status as a "combat veteran" to be mitigating circumstances.

Other mitigating circumstances include his guilty plea, being a parent, first criminal prosecution, being of good character, and partial compensation for non-pecuniary damage to the victims.

Earlier, local media reported that Bitarov had killed his ex-wife "with extreme brutality", stabbing her 16 times.

The victim's relatives also insisted in their appeal that the evidence in the case pointed to torture and murder with extreme brutality.

In addition, as the relatives pointed out, Bitarov repeatedly changed his testimony in court, originally claiming to have acted in self-defence, then blaming the woman's immoral behaviour.

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