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Teens Suspected of Desecrating 90 Graves in Omsk

A cemetary in Omsk. Dmitry G.

Two teenagers were detained Wednesday on suspicion of desecrating 87 grave sites at a cemetery in the Omsk region of southwestern Siberia.

A criminal case has been opened against a 16-year-old for "desecrating the bodies of the dead and places of their burial." A guilty verdict could put the teenager in prison for up to five years.

The teenager's 14-year-old accomplice is under the age of criminal culpability and will not be charged, RIA Novosti reported.

Police precincts across Russia have reported several similar incidents this year, often the result of children's games gone gruesomely awry.

Four children accused of defacing the graves of soldiers in May offered an unusual explanation, saying that they had acted "under the influence of the television series Zakrytaya Shkola (Boarding School)," the Penza region police department said.

A pair of pre-teens in the Krasnoyarsk region acted under another kind of influence that same month. The regional police head said that after stealing the vodka that relatives traditionally place on the graves of the deceased, the children got drunk and proceeded to damage 18 graves.

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