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Lawyers of Russian student accused of attempt to join IS plan to appeal her arrest to ECHR

The defense says he also plan to appeal the girl's right for defense that was violated "when her lawyers were not allowed to see her in a detention center"
Varvara Karaulova Sergei Fadeichev/TASS
Varvara Karaulova
© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Lawyers of the Russian student Varvara Karaulova (Alexandra Ivanova) accused of an attempt to join the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization plan to appeal her arrest in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

"We are preparing to appeal her arrest to ECHR," Karaulova’s lawyer Sergey Badamishin told TASS on Saturday.

He added that he also plans to appeal her right for defense that was violated "when her lawyers were not allowed to see her in a detention center."

Varvara Karaulova, a 19-year-old student, sprang to notoriety in Russia and abroad at the very end of May last year when she walked out of her apartment telling her parents she was going to the university but turned up at an airport and boarded a flight for Istanbul.

Operatives from the Turkish office of Interpol detained Karaulova and another twelve Russian citizens during an attempt to cross the Turkish-Syrian border. All of them had supposedly come to trickle into Syria and join the IS militants.

Varvara, who was escorted by her father on the return trip, came back to Moscow from Istanbul on 12 June 2015. Upon completion of a formal security check on her the court decided to refrain from instituting a criminal case against her.

On Tuesday, October 27 the court arrested the people who had recruited Karaulova herself and had tried to enmesh her in the IS operations.

On November 11, the court denied the girl's request to be placed under house arrest and said she had admitted her guilt. Investigators said they feared Karaulova, who had changed her name to Alexandra Ivanova, would try to contact her recruiters if she was released from custody.