Gyulchekhra Bobokulova, a nanny suspected of murdering a four-year old girl in her care, has been officially charged with the crime, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Friday, citing Russia's Investigative Committee.
The charge carries the maximum punishment of life imprisonment. But under Russian law, women deemed to be sane can be sentenced to no more than 25 years.
Bobokulova will undergo psychological, psychiatric and drug assessments and those will determine the suspect's mental state, RIA Novosti reported, citing the Investigative Committee's spokesman Vladislav Markin.
The investigation is currently determining the motive for the crime, Markin added.
Russia's Federal Security Service believes that Bobokulova's actions should be classified as a “terrorist attack,” the RBC newspaper reported Friday, citing two unidentified sources in the security service and another source close to the investigation.
According to one of the sources, Bobokulova's boyfriend, a Tajik citizen, may be a member of a terrorist organization
If it is discovered that Bobokulova committed the crime under his influence, she will be charged with terrorism, the source said.
On Monday, 38 year-old Uzbek national Bobokulova — working as a nanny for a Moscow family — waited until the girl’s parents left, killed the child, set the apartment on fire and fled.
She was detained later that day near the Oktyabrskoye Pole metro station in northwestern Moscow holding the severed head of the child and shouting “I am a terrorist.”
Bobokulova confessed to the crime and said she was acting on Allah's orders.
The court ordered that Bobokulova remain under arrest for two months.
