On September 9, the Amur-Nizhny Dniprovsky Court of the city of Dnipro acquitted Dnipro woman Maryna Polyakh, who killed her roommate while defending herself. Prior to that, the woman had endured beatings for two years and repeatedly contacted the police.
Suspilne and the human rights organization Martin Club write about this.
The case was considered for three years. According to Maryna, the deceased Dmytro Plotnikov beat her for two years.
According to Suspilny, the woman contacted the police 38 times regarding domestic violence, but only one report was drawn up during that time.
The womanʼs roommate was previously convicted of premeditated murder, but did not serve his term and was released early.
“She didnʼt want him to live with her, but he didnʼt care what she thought. When she wouldnʼt let him into her apartment, he broke windows and set the house on fire. He even rushed at the police, but they couldnʼt do anything with him," says the Martin Club.
A court hearing was eventually scheduled that could have sent the man back to prison to serve time for murder. However, he began to threaten the woman that she would not live to face trial, and attacked her again. But this time her daughter was with her, and he threatened to kill them both.
According to Marinaʼs testimony, during the attack, she grabbed a knife, and the man attacked him, which led to his death.
The woman was tried under two articles — Article 115 of the Criminal Code (intentional murder) and Article 118 (intentional murder when the limits of necessary defense were exceeded). At the meeting on September 9, she was acquitted on both counts.
After the meeting, the woman said that she still does not believe in the court verdict. Marina plans to help other women affected by domestic violence — she has completed training as a trainer in providing psychological assistance.
Why is this important?
According to the UN, almost every third woman in the world (30%) has suffered from physical or sexual violence by a partner or sexual violence by a stranger at least once in her life.
In most cases, it is violence from an intimate partner. Globally, almost a third (27%) of women aged 15-49 who are in a relationship report such violence.
An OSCE and UN study in 2019 showed that 70% of Ukrainian women over the age of 15 faced psychological, physical or sexual violence.