A court in Yekaterinburg sentenced a Russian woman to 24 years in prison for the torture and murder of six-year-old Daler Bobiev, concluding a horrific case that drew nationwide attention when the boy’s body was found hidden in a gym bag almost seven months after his death.
The Sverdlovsk regional court convicted Veronika Naumova on multiple charges, including fraud, torture, and aggravated murder motivated by ethnic hatred (Daler was from a Tajik migrant family). Naumova became his guardian in 2019. Her former foster child, 21-year-old Daniil Egolnikov, received a five-year sentence for participating in Daler’s torture.
The case exposed serious failings in Russia’s child protection system and highlighted ethnic tensions. Prosecutors said Naumova beat Daler with a metal shoe horn before drowning him in December 2022, then concealed his death for months while continuing to collect government payments. More than 1,500 volunteers searched for the supposedly missing boy before discovering his remains in June 2023. Several officials were later convicted of negligence in failing to detect the abuse.