“Lost” criminal record: eight disabled children were taken from the adoptive mother due to the carelessness of officials

In the Caucasus, few children traditionally live in orphanages - much less than in other regions. Most orphans are taken by relatives. But even here, not everyone is ready to take custody and even more so to adopt a lying child with a serious illness, who will have to take care of his whole life.

Six years ago, the Dagestan authorities began actively looking for families for orphans with disabilities. Officials proactively addressed people who were interested in adoption.

“I have long wanted to take custody of an orphan, but they told me that in the republic there is already a large line of potential adoptive parents. And in the spring of 2014, they suddenly called me from the district administration and asked if I would like to accept children with disabilities. I agreed almost immediately, although initially I still thought about healthy people, ”Mamusat Nasibova told RT.

She is one of those women who are said to be created for motherhood and upbringing. For 12 years, out of her 58, Nasibova worked as a nanny in a boarding school. Alone, she was able to raise three of her own children. The husband died of hemorrhage in the late 1980s. And when my children grew up, I decided to raise foster children.

“I have a 14-room house in the village in which I am left alone. Well, where, I think, is such a bulk to me. I wanted the children to play here again, ”recalls Mamusat.

Nasibova collected all the documents required by the guardianship authorities, including a certificate of previous conviction.

“It was 11 years ago, I don’t remember all the details. I worked at a grocery store, we had a check. On the shelves, the controllers found expired food. For this I was fined three thousand rubles. There was nothing else, ”recalls Mamusat.

The woman was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (production, storage, transportation or sale of goods and products, performance of work or the provision of services that do not meet the requirements for the safety of life or the health of consumers). Her only punishment is a fine. A year later, according to the law, the criminal record was canceled. But the record of her, as it should be according to the law, was preserved in the archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The criminal record did not raise any questions from officials. Although even then the norms of the Family Code of the Russian Federation were in force, which explicitly forbade persons with even a cleared criminal record to become foster parents under a number of articles of the Criminal Code (Article 146 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation).

• Certificate of canceled conviction Mamusat Nasibova
• © Oleg Adamovich / RT

Family pension

The family life of Mamusat and her new children almost immediately began with a tragedy. Due to a short circuit, that 14-room house in which the woman was going to raise her kids burned down (seven orphans were not even three years old at the time of the guardianship). Fortunately, no one was hurt in the fire; Nasibova managed to take everyone out into the yard. But the building itself was not even partially preserved - according to her, firefighters drove from the district center for 40 minutes on a broken dirt road.

Assistance to a large guardian was announced throughout the republic. As a result, the deputy of the Dagestan National Assembly, Islam Huseykhanov, built a new house for a large family at his own expense.

Nasibova did not immediately take custody of all eight orphans. In the spring of 2014, two children were entrusted to her - officials wanted to make sure that Mamusat would cope with disabled children.

Coped. Six months later, the woman took four more. And later two more. Officials have never had a question due to past criminal record. Moreover, the republican authorities set Nasibova as an example - she was personally presented with letters of thanks by the former head of the region Ramazan Abdulatipov, the current head Vladimir Vasilyev, the leadership of the Women's Union of Dagestan, and the regional children's ombudsman.

“Not everyone cares for their own children as Mamusat does for foster care. The whole village saw how she was rushing with them. Mamusat sincerely fell in love with these orphans, because it is impossible to take care of people like that without strong feelings, ”said Khadizhat Imansapieva, the head teacher of the school in the village where Nasibova lives.

It was not easy with children. Eight severely disabled babies constantly require attention. They must be washed, entertained, changed their diapers, pay attention to everyone. Together with Nasibova, the children were looked after by relatives living in the neighborhood. The result was an impromptu family pension.

“Checks are not going to”

Violations of the legislation on foster families were discovered by the prosecutor's office, which checked all foster families in the republic. Law enforcement officers found a lot of violations in the work of the guardianship authorities of the Gergebilsky district and in the actions of Mamusat herself. Listing all the comments required six A4 sheets.

“During the check, guardians with criminal records were found. The municipal guardianship authorities, believing that the violations were substantial, decided to remove the children from the family. Children in their own interests were assigned to social institutions. The further fate of the orphans will be decided by the guardianship authorities. We reacted because it is forbidden to transfer children to adoptive parents with a criminal record, ”explained Tatyana Golubova, senior assistant to the prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan for media relations.

The order of the prosecutor’s office says: “Suspend Nasibova from fulfilling duties.” The foster parent does the work for which he receives money from the state.

Nasibova was paid seven thousand rubles a month for expenses for each child and seven thousand salaries for care. This is 14 thousand for one orphan, it is 112 thousand per month. For the village, just a gigantic amount.

Under the law, foster parents are required to keep checks in order to report on the spending of public funds. The prosecutor’s office found that not a single foster family in the area collects checks (there are several dozen of them).

“At first I tried to collect checks, but the guardianship authorities told me: no. It is enough to write a report on the expenditure of funds once a year, otherwise municipalities collect a lot of checks for a year, and then they don’t know where to put them, ”Mamusat told RT.

“There are no documents issued by medical institutions confirming the treatment received,” it is written in the papers of the prosecutor's office. Indeed, in the personal file of orphans, which is conducted by the guardianship authorities, there are no marks that Nasibova showed her charges to doctors. According to the papers, it turns out that severely disabled people live in the village without any medical care.

“If Nasibova showed orphans to doctors, we would have had marks. But they are not. Obviously, the necessary care was not provided to the children, ”Ali Magomedov, deputy head of the Gergebel district, told RT.

However, regional doctors say the opposite.

“Nasibova has come to us with her children more than once. Here's what I can say: all the kids are well-groomed. Under the diapers there are no diaper rash, no redness or sores. No sign of beatings. This means that orphans are being watched. Children are drawn to Mamusat and say that they love her. One of the adoptive daughters, Karina, while living in a boarding school, came to us with diseases every month. And for the past two years, she’s been fine - life in the fresh air with Mamusat has benefited the child, her health has improved, ”said Khadizhat Osmanova, deputy chief physician of the Children's City Clinical Hospital of Makhachkala, RT.

“Nobody told me that these papers had to be carried to the guardianship authorities! Not once in four and a half years have they been asked of me. Of course, I showed the children to doctors, I regularly take them to Makhachkala to the ophthalmologist, for therapeutic massage, to neurologists. In the district hospital, the necessary narrow specialists are still not there. I have a whole bunch of conclusions written by doctors after undergoing treatment, ”Mamusat justifies himself and shows a pile of medical papers.

However, the prosecutor’s office had comments not only on guardian parents, but also on officials. Personal files of children are being violated. There are not only checks and medical notes - there are no certificates on the registration of children, an inventory of children's property, and much more.

The district administration assures that the parents themselves are to blame.

“If there are no papers in the file, then they were not provided to us. Our employees are doing their job well, ”the deputy head of the district, Ali Magomedov, is sure.

Why was Nasibova allowed to take children at the time, although she had a criminal record? We could not clearly answer this question in the district administration.

“In the Gergebel district, not only Nasibova took custody of orphans with disabilities. There were many families willing to accept children from the boarding school. It seems to me that officials now regret it. Each child is a bunch of reports. And there are 93 such people in the area. We need to collect pieces of paper, monitor the condition of children, help guardians, and control the spending of funds. The fewer children, the easier the administration. I think that’s why the municipal authorities didn’t even try to find an alternative solution, ”says Marina Ezhova, a children's ombudsman.

All Nasibova’s children were removed from the family and sent to a special boarding school.

• Mamusat Nasibova, a resident of Dagestan, was deprived of foster children
• © Oleg Adamovich / RT

“They're Thrown A Second Time”

After the removal of the children, their adoptive mother Nasibova literally finds no place for herself, cries every day and carries groceries to her daughters and sons. Children (the youngest is now six years old, the oldest is 14) howl without ceasing, and ask back to the family. But the bureaucratic side of things came first. Fulfilling the injunction of the prosecutor’s office, the district authorities completely did not take into account the views of the children themselves.

“To remove children from the family is an extreme step. It was possible to discuss how to get out of the situation. After all, most of the comments of the prosecutor's office are not so difficult to fix. But the district authorities went their own way, came home to the children, put them in police cars and took them to a boarding school. Now we will seek that someone from the Nasibova family takes custody of eight orphans. Children are used to being together, but hardly anyone wants to take all eight of them. I don’t really want to break up a family, ”explained Marina Yezhova, the ombudsman for the protection of the family, motherhood and rights of the child at the head of the republic of Dagestan.

Child psychologist Olga Osipova also does not believe that the transfer of children from family to a boarding school will benefit them.

“They have already been abandoned once in their life. Now they are being thrown a second time. This is a severe stress, it negatively affects health and development. Children, especially those with disabilities, grow and develop if there is love and emotional contact. If you remove feelings and leave one care, as will most likely be in a boarding school, then the development of personality among orphans will practically stop. If the children are also divided into different families, they will become even worse, ”says the psychologist.

So far, none of the authorities (except the Ombudsman), who awarded Nasibova with letters “for increasing the authority of motherhood”, did not speak out publicly in support of the adoptive mother about the situation.

What's next?

“It would be better if I were never given these children. I fell in love with them, as mine. I worked in a boarding school for 12 years, there were no comments on my work. And now, in old age, such a shame and tragedy, ”Nasibova laments.

What are the options for further developments?

• First: the repeated adoption of all orphans by someone from Nasibova’s relatives. This option is offered by the children's ombudsman Marina Yezhova. For the family, virtually nothing will change, but the formal guardian will no longer be Mamusat.
• Second: appeal the decision of the guardianship authorities in court.

“This is decided right at one meeting - the severity of the previous criminal record is revealed. The success or failure of a case depends entirely on the judge, ”Olga Budaeva, lawyer of the Commonwealth of foster families, explained to RT. According to her, there are no guarantees: “In my practice there was only one case when the court returned the children to the family, reversing the custody decision. Themis does not often side with parents with a previous conviction. Someone was tried for a fight, someone sat down for theft in the USSR. “I know people with old convictions who don’t even have road fines for the past 20 years, but they still can’t take custody of children.”

According to Elena Alshanskaya, director of the Volunteers to Help Orphans Charitable Foundation, it is long overdue to introduce certain amendments to the Family Code.

“Today, if one of the potential guardians or foster parents in the past was tried for a crime against life and health, then he cannot take a child from the orphanage. The problem is that there are many articles in the group of crimes against life and health. And not all of them can really be related to parenting. For example, a person was caught trading in moonshine. Yes, in almost all villages we have people with such convictions! It is necessary that the Family Code should list specific articles with which children cannot be adopted, ”Alshanskaya emphasized.