Reports emerge of charges against father in widely watched Khachaturyan case; lawyers of abused daughters say otherwise

Maria, Angelina, and Krestina Khachaturyan were arrested in July of 2018 for killing their father, Mikhail Khachaturyan, who they said had tortured and sexually abused them for years. The murder case against the two eldest Khachaturan sisters has since become a matter of very public importance in Russia, with the young women’s attorneys demanding the right to a self-defense case and a separate, posthumous criminal case against the women’s father.

On July 11, the Russian wire agency TASS reported that the country’s Investigative Committee had fulfilled that hope. The agency referenced an anonymous source who said the case documents relevant to Mikhail Khachaturyan’s behavior had been transferred to a new case based on three charges: torture, violent acts of a sexual nature, and forcing participation in sexual acts. Interfax, another wire agency, confirmed that case materials on Mikhail Khachaturyan had been categorized together but did not confirm that a new criminal case had been opened against him.

Alexey Liptser, the attorney representing Krestina Khachaturyan, refuted TASS’s reports, telling MBK Media that the Investigative Committee had collected materials on Mikhail Khachaturyan in order to decide whether or not to bring charges against him. Alexey Parshin, the attorney for Angelina Khachaturyan, agreed. Yaroslav Pakulin, who represents Maria Khachaturyan, added that investigators are waiting for clarification from Khachaturyan’s relatives before deciding whether to open a criminal case.