All news

Russian court sentences US citizen to 15 months in jail for stabbing her Russian partner

A source in law enforcement agencies told TASS that Sarah Krivanek had an argument with her acquaintance in November 2021

MOSCOW, August 10. /TASS/. A Moscow Region court sentenced US citizen Sarah Krivanek to 15 months in prison for stabbing her Russian partner, a court official has told TASS.

"The court found US citizen Krivanek Sarah Rachel guilty under Article 119.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (threat of murder) and Article 115.1.v (intentional infliction of light injury) and sentenced <…> the convict to one year and three months in an open prison," the court said.

According to Yekaterina Kalugina, a public activist who regularly visited Krivanek in a pretrial detention facility, the US citizen has been transported to a jail in Central Russia’s Ryazan Region.

A source in law enforcement agencies told TASS that the 45-year-old woman from the US state of California had had an argument with her acquaintance in November 2021. The conflict between them occurred in an apartment located in Odintsovo, outside Moscow. Krivanek stabbed the individual she was having a dispute with, but the wound turned out not to be life-threatening.

Later, the US citizen was released on her own recognizance not to leave the Moscow region. However, on December 15, 2021, the defendant first went to the US Embassy in Moscow and then to Sheremetyevo International Airport, where she purchased a ticket for a flight to Atlanta. She was detained by the police while attempting to board the plane, and the court changed her preventive measure to detention in a pre-trial facility.