No Criminal Case to Be Launched Against Would-Be Islamic State Wife

July 23, 2015

A Moscow university student who fled to Turkey in June in an alleged bid to join the Islamic State will not face criminal charges in Russia, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

Varvara Karaulova, a 19-year-old philosophy student at Moscow State University, was detained by Turkish authorities and Interpol officers in a town near the Syrian border last month.

After being questioned in Turkey, she was sent back to Moscow amid mounting rumors that she may face criminal justice at home.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin announced Thursday that a probe into the affair had wrapped up, and that investigators had decided not to pursue a criminal case against the teen, RIA Novosti reported.

The report did not explain the reasons for the investigators' decision.

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