A court in the Russian republic of Kalmykia has found five teenagers guilty of bullying a 14-year-old classmate into taking his own life, the region's branch of Russia's Investigative Committee told the news outlet Lenta.ru.
The five young residents of the village of Sadovoye were convicted of driving the boy to suicide, unlawfully entering a dwelling, battery, and involving minors in an especially grave crime. They were sentenced to between six and ten years in a juvenile correctional colony.
Night of Violence
Investigators and the court established that on the night of March 9, 2025, seven high school students came to the 14-year-old's home and beat him, spat on him and urinated on him. The attack was filmed on video. The group acted on the instructions of a 20-year-old acquaintance, investigators said.
The next day, the boy's head was pushed into a toilet by the group. He later took his own life.
Teachers were reportedly aware of the bullying but did not intervene to help him. A second teenager, who had witnessed the abuse, was found dead on March 20 in what was also ruled a suicide.
Calls for Accountability
The case caused a significant public outcry in the region. Vitaly Grigoryev, a lawyer representing the boy's mother, said officials responsible for child welfare prevention in Sarpinsky District, including local administration staff, police officers and school employees, had failed to properly carry out their duties.
According to Grigoryev, no preventive work was done to protect children from threats, no cases of violence or discrimination among students were identified, and no measures were taken to register at-risk children and families with the relevant authorities.
Kalmykia is a sparsely populated republic in southern Russia, on the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. Russia's Investigative Committee is the country's main federal agency responsible for investigating serious crimes, including homicides and cases involving minors.
The case follows a separate one in which a court in Novgorod district sentenced a man from Lipetsk to 12 years in prison for driving a teenage girl to suicide.
