A rape investigation at a boarding school in Chelyabinsk becomes a defamation case

What started out as an investigation into sexual abuse and criminal negligence allegedly committed by teachers at a boarding school in Chelyabinsk is now a defamation case brought by those same teachers. According to the website URA.ru, the teachers have “passed all inspection,” and police are now concentrating their investigation on defamation allegations. Irina Butorina, the regional human rights commissioner, confirmed that there will be no action against the boarding school’s staff. She said on Monday that she didn’t know anything about the defamation charges, but defended the teachers’ right to make these allegations.

Earlier this year, the Chelyabinsk website 74.ru published an investigative report about the rape of orphans at the Lazurnen Boarding School in Chelyabinsk. According to journalists, the school’s administrators sold time with the orphans to different men. Andrey Lepekhin, the lawyer for one of the families that adopted an allegedly raped child, said his clients were threatened by local officials who don’t want the case prosecuted. Lepekhin told Meduza that Irina Butorina threatened to take away a family’s adopted children, if the family spoke to reporters. Another source told Meduza that the family also received a threatening anonymous phone call. Butorina denies the allegations.

In February, the Investigative Committee charged a man named Sergey Kokorin with rape after seven children came forward with allegations that he regularly came to their boarding school, took them, and raped them. The children also say four teachers and another man raped them, as well.