An infanticide case has been opened against a Siberian woman accused of having suffocated her newborn child moments after giving birth in a moving train, investigators said in a statement this week.
The 38-year-old woman gave birth to her child in the train's bathroom near the town of Ishim in the Tyumen region. She then suffocated the newborn in a plastic bag, investigators allege.
Investigators are currently working to elucidate the circumstances surrounding the crime.
Under Russian law, mothers convicted of infanticide can face up to five years in prison.
Between 2010 and 2013, Russia’s Interior Ministry recorded 532 cases of infanticide, according to Cradle of Hope, a nongovernmental organization that introduced baby boxes to Russia in 2011. A baby box is an enclosure resembling an incubator in which parents can leave an unwanted newborn, anonymously and without legal repercussions. As of March, there were 21 baby boxes in 11 different Russian regions.
