26/7 Tass 99
MOSCOW, July 26 (Itar-Tass) — The Defense Ministry confirmed that an officer of a military unit in the Moscow region had been detained on suspicion of child molesting.
“According to reports by senior officers of the military unit where the serviceman has served since 2009, the officer in question has positive references. The degree of his guilt will be ascertained in the course of investigation, and determined by Russian court,” the Defense Ministry underlined.
Earlier, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass that “In July, a woman from the Shchyolkovo district, Moscow region, reported to the SK via hot line about suspicious visits by underage children to the apartment of her neighbor in the village of Monino,” Markin said.
The information was confirmed in the course of pre-investigation check. “SK investigative bodies in the Moscow region opened a criminal case against a 44-year-old resident of the village of Monino, suspected of the commission of crime under Article 134, Part 3 (child molesting) and Article 134, Part 2 (lewd acts against minor), according to the spokesman.
Investigators ascertained that “the suspect, a Defense Ministry Colonel in service, sexually abused two brothers, aged 9 and 15, in his apartment repeatedly in the period from 2009 through July 2011.”
The Colonel has been detained and questioned. He has already confessed to the crime. A court is mulling the request to select custody as the measure of restraint for him, Markin added.