A Perm region businesswoman has been fined 8,000 rubles ($260) for trying to use "black magic" to put a curse on an assistant prosecutor handling a case against her son.
A local magistrate found Alevtina Mekhanoshina guilty of insult over the attempted sorcery, Interfax Wednesday. She was also sentenced to pay an additional 5,000 rubles in moral damages.
Mekhanoshina walked into the prosecutor's office in February to argue that the policemen who had arrested her son for drunk driving had assaulted him and should be charged with misconduct. Police said they had been forced to get rough because her son had resisted arrest.
She then tried to hand the assistant prosecutor an envelope, which was refused. During the exchange the envelope fell on a table and black ash spilled out.
Mekhanoshina then uttered the curse, saying the official would "suffer over the ills" inflicted on the businesswoman's family. Prosecutors made her sweep away the ash and then filed charges against her.
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