Teen girl goes for a walk around a cemetery with a deceased person’s tombstone cross as she and her pal giggle and laugh.
The clip of the seventh-grader from the Leningrad region, located in north-western Russia, laughing as she walks with a tombstone ornament through the cemetery quickly spread across the Internet and caused outrage.
Posing for the camera amidst her friend’s laughter was the 13-year-old girl at one of the cemeteries in the town of Otradnoye.
Bizarre footage showed the schoolgirl with a ‘gothic’ appearance carrying the cross in her hands as she walked among the graves.
The scandal drew vast attention online and soon reached the head of the Russian “Safe Internet League,” Ekaterina Mizulina, who promptly responded to the incident.
In her Telegram channel, she reported that the teenagers went to the cemetery and alleged the child stole the cross from a grave, then went for a walk with it.
Mizulina added: “We will ask the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs to conduct an investigation. This is not the first such case.”
Whether the teenagers actually tore the cross from a grave is unknown.
Police said they have since identified the two girls but have not released their names.
Under Article 244 of the Criminal Code of Russian law (desecration of bodies of the deceased and places of their burial), the seventh-grader could face criminal liability when she turns 14 (the age of partial criminal responsibility in Russia).
Meanwhile, the schoolgirl herself reportedly denied that she and her friends tore the cross from a grave.
According to the girl’s account to her parents, they found it at the nearest dumpsite from the cemetery.
It is worth noting that the wooden cross the schoolgirl walked with through the cemetery does resemble temporary crosses, which are often simply thrown away after the installation of a tombstone.
Such discarded crosses can often be seen in dumps near city cemeteries, as evidenced by panoramic shots of the Otradnoye cemetery in 2020.
Local police are currently investigating.
To find out more about the author, editor or agency that supplied this story – please click below. Story By: Simona Kitanovska, Sub-Editor: Simona Kitanovska, Agency: Central European News
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