Investigators reopened a case on Monday against two teenage girls on attempted murder charges for beating up their friend on camera in western Russia.
The Kaliningrad region’s Prosecutor General granted the appeal of the local branch of the Investigative Committee, which complained about the case’s closure last week, a committee spokeswoman said.
Two 14-year-old girls beat up a fellow teenager in the local town of Gusev in late March. The incident, filmed on a cellphone by their male friends, showed one girl holding the victim by the hair while another kicked and elbowed the victim in the head until she escaped.
Earlier, local police refused to press charges, saying the girls were under 14, the legal limit for criminal persecution, at the time of the incident. Gusev prosecutors later upheld the decision but cited unspecified “procedural violations,” not the girls’ age, as the reason.
The case caused a public backlash that even prompted Russia’s ombudsman for children Pavel Astakhov to warn against “lynching” the girls, one of whom said earlier the victim badmouthed her family.
The attempted murder charges carry a maximum punishment of 15 years in prison.