Fury as photographer jailed for the depraved murder of his wife is released early from Russian prison

Dmitry Loshagin, 44, killed his wife Yulia, 26, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in 2013, ‘because he thought she’d given him HIV’

He snapped his model wife’s neck after a row at a rooftop party and burned her body

He was sentenced to nine years in 2015 but will be released three years early

Evidence at his trial said Yulia was ‘violently raped’ an hour before her death and the body was burnt beyond recognition

Loshagin who was on convicted on retrial, after he was acquitted at a first trial, has never admitted guilt or apologized to the victim’s family

The move for early release has been strongly condemned by the victim’s family, and online by women’s rights campaigners

Prosecutors, who say the killer should have been sentenced to the minimum 20 years for domestic homicide, are appealing his early release

Campaigners have reacted in fury after a court ruled that a photographer who snapped his glamorous wife’s neck because he thought she had given him HIV will be released from prison early.
Prosecutors in Russia are appealing the decision to free 44–year-old Dmitry Loshagin on an early Release.
Loshagin is just five years into a nine-year prison sentence resulting from his conviction for killing his 26-year-old wife after a row at a rooftop party. He killed Yulia Loshagina when he broke her neck.
A court in Yekaterinburg has ruled that the murderer should be released from jail three years early, and be allowed to live at his parents’ home with some restrictions on his movement.
The move for early release has been strongly condemned by the victim’s family, and online by women’s rights campaigners. Rita Grachyova, who became a campaigner for women’s rights after her then husband chopped off her hands with an axe, said Loshagin should have served at least 20 years.
She condemned ‘soft’ sentences and early releases in domestic abuse cases in Russia.
State prosecutors are now seeking to block the move saying he should serve his full sentence of almost ten years in jail.
But freeing him was welcomed as ‘good news’ by Svetlana Petrakova, the organizer of Miss Yekaterinburg beauty contest, which Loshagin regularly photographed.

Yulia Loshagina, a top line model had been featured extensively by her photographer by her husband for glamour magazines in Russia. The couple quarreled at a party in their rooftop penthouse in August 2013, and she was never seen alive again. Her body was subsequently burned.
He lashed out at her, and broke her neck, said judge Alexandra Evladova, in convicting him of murder in 2015, when he was sentenced to almost ten years in jail at a re-trial
Evidence at both trials said Yulia was ‘violently raped’ an hour before her death. After her body was torched, her face and hands were so badly disfigured that her body could only be identified by DNA evidence.
The killer who was only convicted at a second trial, had been acquitted first trial. However, he has never admitted his guilt.
There were unproven claims that he had killed her because he believed she had a lover and feared she had infected him with HIV.
Another version had been that she died during a bizarre sex session with Loshagin.
Other reports in newspapers speculated that Yulia was killed by a professional assassin hired by her alleged lover, an unnamed ‘elderly’ state official whose identity was hidden, amid fears their relationship would be revealed.

Russian detectives discounted claims she had a secret boyfriend despite Loshagin giving them the name of a man he suspected she was seeing.
‘They didn’t pay attention,’ he said.
‘As an investigator told me: “According to our statistics, as a rule, a husband kills. So, you’ll be in jail”.’
State prosecutors in Sverdlovsk region argue it is too soon to release Loshagin.
An official Marina Kanatova said: ‘The convicted man did not apologize to the victims’ relatives…
‘He has not admitted his guilt, and, accordingly, there is no reason to believe that he will not commit the crime again in the future.’

Yulia’s mother Svetlana Ryabova told Channel 5 she will join prosecutors in appealing his early release.
‘I was shocked [by the court’s decision to free him],’ she said.
‘A nine year sentence for a brutal murder way anyway too short.’
Her lawyer Sergey Zhorin said: ‘In our opinion, the decision is illegal. Dmitry Loshagin did not admit his guilt nor repent.’
Grachyova said a man who killed his spouse should serve a full term of 20 years.
‘This person should serve a full term,’ she said.
Ryabova believes that sentences for domestic murder were ‘too short’ in Russia.