A 38-year-old nanny, who beheaded a Russian child in her care, before brandishing the severed head outside a Moscow metro station, said she acted to avenge Muslims killed in air strikes in Syria.
Gulchekhra Bobokulova of Muslim-majority Uzbekistan, said on Thursday in Moscow that she committed the crime because she was unhappy with President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch air strikes in the Middle East.
“I took revenge against those who spilled blood. Putin spilled blood, planes carried out bombings, why are Muslims being killed and they also want to live?’’she said.
The Kremlin launched its campaign of air strikes in Syria on September 30 in support of President Bashar al-Assad, an intervention that altered the course of the conflict there.
Meanwhile, Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin Spokesman said on Thursday that the remarks by Bobokulova should be regarded as those of someone who is mentally unsound.
“I may be wrong. I’m not an expert or a judge but it is obvious that we are definitely talking about a woman who is mentally unsound. You need to regard anything that such a deranged woman says accordingly,’’ he said.
Police on Monday wrestled to the ground Bobokulova, after she wandered around a Moscow street holding the infant’s severed head in the air and shouting Islamist slogans.
Eyewitnesses said at the time they believed she was carrying out a terrorist act, but since her detention, Russian investigators have raised the possibility she might be suffering from mental illness.
Investigators said she had been working as a nanny, for a Moscow family and that she had murdered and beheaded one of the children in her care, before setting fire to the family flat and fleeing.
They said Bobokulova told reporters on her way into the courtroom that Allah had ordered her to do what she did, but that she had repented and agreed with her arrest.
Sat in the metal cage reserved for defendants in Russian courts, Bobokulova waved and said,”I am Allah’s messenger. Hello everyone”.
Investigators said her head was uncovered and she appeared relaxed, occasionally yawning, in contrast to Monday when she had been dressed in black and wearing a hijab.
They said the court agreed to detain her for two months while the investigation continued after hearing that she presented an “exceptional risk to public safety”.
“She will undergo psychiatric testing and to date no one else had been identified who was involved in the crime.
“The judge spoke of possible accomplices still being at large and hiding from the police, without giving details,’’they said.
Meanwhile, some rights activists have warned of a possible backlash in Russia against migrant workers, from Central Asian countries, such as Uzbekistan, who have in the past been targeted for beatings by far-right groups.
