The court in St. Petersburg ruled terminate the criminal case and release a local resident who was detained on charges of rape and murder of a girl.
As Fontanka writes, according to investigators, in the spring of 2002, Alexey Danilov beat her while walking with his friend and when she lost consciousness, he raped her. According to law enforcement officers, in the process of committing violent acts, the girl woke up and tried to resist, then the criminal strangled the victim. Over the next 20 years, the man led an inconspicuous lifestyle, often changed jobs, and in the last three years before his arrest he did not leave the house at all and lived on the money of his relatives, Fontanka points out.
It is reported that when Danilova detained in March of this year, charged and brought the case to court, he asked to terminate the proceedings due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The prosecutor's office objected to this request, but the court sided with the accused. Fontanka indicates that the court motivated its decision by the fact that although Danilov was accused of a particularly serious crime, all these years he “did not try to hide from the investigation, he had a job, registration.”
In the end, the case was stopped, the defendant was released in the courtroom, writes Fontanka.