MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. The Preobrazhensky District Court of Moscow has arrested Nadezhda Kulikova, the woman who allegedly left her underage child alone in Moscow’s Elk Island National Park, TASS reports from the court hall.
"To grant the prosecution’s motion and to arrest Kulikova until April 18 as a measure of restraint," the judge stated.
Kulikova was charged with attempted murder.
The defendant did not contest the court’s decision. "I don’t mind, if they need more time, let them arrest me and make sense of it," she said.
The woman’s lawyer stated that Kulikova is "in a state of shock" and does not make sense of her actions. "I am against the arrest of my client. She is a mother, and she couldn’t have done anything bad to her child," the attorney said, adding that the defense will appeal the decision.
In the morning on February 18, a woman born in 1985 contacted a police station saying that her six-year-old son had got lost in Moscow’s Elk Island National Park. According to the woman, the boy ran away and did not return.
A law enforcement source earlier told TASS that the boy got out of the forest all by himself at around 9am and headed to a gasoline filling station in Moscow’s eastern Golyanovo district. The employees there called the emergency services.
The story told by the child contradicts his mother’s version of what happened, according to the Russian Investigative Committee. A comprehensive fingerprint and molecular genetic forensic examination will be conducted, investigators said.