MOSCOW, January 25 Lawyer Sergei Egorov, representing the interests of the owners of the cat Twix who died in Kirov, confirmed the fact that a criminal case has been initiated under the article on cruelty to animals, a video with the statement of the defender was published in Telegram channel of cat owners.
On Thursday, a law enforcement source said that the investigation classified the incident with the cat Twix as cruelty to an animal, but there are no defendants in the criminal case yet.
«I would like to inform you that Edgar Gaifulin, the owner of a cat named Twix, contacted us and asked to provide him with legal assistance in this case. Criminal case was initiated on January 24 by an investigator of the Investigative Committee on the grounds of a crime under Part 1 of Article 245 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Yesterday Edgar was interrogated as a victim,» the lawyer said.
According to the defense lawyer, he also spoke on the phone with the investigator and said that the victims’ side considers it necessary to qualify the actions of the guilty person under Article 167 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate destruction or damage to property).
The fact of initiating a criminal case was previously confirmed by the owner of the deceased cat, Edgar Gaifullin: according to a post on his Telegram channel, as part of the case, he was interrogated as a victim, and the man who, at his request, transported the animal on the train, was interrogated as a witness.
On January 11, the conductor of a long-distance train dropped Twix off at a parking lot in Kirov, mistaking the cat for a stray. Hundreds of volunteers searched, but in the end the pet was found dead. After the incident, Russian Railways announced that they would change the rules for transporting animals, and conductors would be prohibited from disembarking them from trains onto the street.