Campaigners have reacted in fury after a court ruled a photographer who snapped his model wife’s neck because he reportedly thought she had given him HIV will be released from prison early.
Russian prosecutors are appealing the decision to free Dmitry Loshagin, 44, just five years after he was found guilty of breaking the neck of Yulia Loshagina, 26, after a row at a rooftop party.
A court in Yekaterinburg has ruled that the murderer should be released from jail three years early, and be allowed to live at his parents’ home with some restrictions on his movement.
The move to liberate him was strongly attacked by the victim’s family, and online.
Campaigners have reacted in fury after a court ruled photographer Dmitry Loshagin (right), 44, who snapped his model wife Yulia Loshagina’s (left), 26, neck will be released from prison early in Ekaterinburg, Russia
Rita Grachyova, who became a campaigner for women’s rights after her then husband chopped off her hands with an axe, said Logashin should have served at least 20 years.
She condemned ‘soft’ sentences and early releases in domestic abuse cases in Russia.
State prosecutors are now seeking to block the move saying he should serve his full sentence of almost ten years in jail.
But freeing him was welcomed as ‘good news’ by Svetlana Petrakova, the organiser of Miss Yekaterinburg beauty contest, which Loshagin regularly photographed.
There were unproven claims that he had killed Mrs Loshagina (pictured) because he believed she had a lover and feared she had infected him with HIV
Yulia had been pictured by her husband for glamour magazines in Russia.
The couple quarrelled at a party in their rooftop penthouse in August 2013, and she was never seen alive again.
He lashed out at her, and broke her neck, said judge Alexandra Evladova, in convicting him of murder in 2015, when he was sentenced to almost ten years in jail.
A first trial acquitted him, but he was convicted at a second trial yet has never admitted his guilt.
Evidence at both trials said Yulia was ‘violently raped’ an hour before her death.
After her body was torched, her face and hands were so badly disfigured that her body could only be identified by DNA evidence.
There were unproven claims that he had killed her because he believed she had a lover and feared she had infected him with HIV.
Another version had been that she died during a bizarre sex session with Loshagin.
There were also reports in newspapers that Yulia was killed by a professional assassin hired by her alleged lover, an unnamed ‘elderly’ state official whose identity was hidden, amid fears their relationship would be revealed.
But Russian detectives discounted claims she had a secret boyfriend despite Loshagin giving them the name of a man he suspected she was seeing.
Loshagin (left) lashed out at his wife (right), and broke her neck, said judge Alexandra Evladova, in convicting him of murder in 2015, when he was sentenced to almost ten years in jail
‘They didn’t pay attention,’ he said.
‘As an investigator told me: “According to our statistics, as a rule, a husband kills. So, you’ll be in jail”.’
State prosecutors in Sverdlovsk region argue it is too soon to release Loshagin.
An official Marina Kanatova said: ‘The convicted man did not apologise to the victims’ relatives…
‘He has not admitted his guilt, and, accordingly, there is no reason to believe that he will not commit the crime again in the future.’
Russian detectives discounted claims Mrs Loshagin (pictured) had a secret boyfriend despite Loshagin giving them the name of a man he suspected she was seeing
Yulia’s mother Svetlana Ryabova told Channel 5 she will join prosecutors in appealing his early release.
‘I was shocked [by the court’s decision to free him],’ she said. ‘A nine year sentence for a brutal murder way anyway too short.’
Her lawyer Sergey Zhorin said: ‘In our opinion, the decision is illegal. Dmitry Loshagin did not admit his guilt nor repent.’
Grachyova said a man who killed his spouse should serve a full term of 20 years.
‘This person should serve a full term,’ she said. The sentences for domestic murder were ‘too short’ in Russia, she said.