District Court hands man 18-year sentence for murder
The Harju District Court has sentenced Elyar Isajev to 18 years in prison for the premeditated murder of a 59-year-old woman, who was stabbed dozens of times last September.
Isajev visited the woman under a personal pretext early in the morning of September 7 last year. The court proceedings established that the meeting was not coincidental — Isajev had planned the killing before visiting the victim.
The court found that Isajev attacked the victim with a knife, inflicting at least 31 stab wounds, including to vital areas of the body. The victim died at the scene as a result of her injuries.
Taking into account the extent of the violence, the cruelty of the attack and the number of injuries inflicted, the court considered the degree of guilt to be high and deemed the 18-year sentence requested by the prosecutors to be justified.
The court also emphasized the unusual and premeditated nature of the act. Before the killing, Isajev had gathered information about the police and the Tallinn bus station, and after the crime he headed to the station, where he personally called the emergency center, reported the murder and waited for the police to arrive.
Isajev explained in court that he decided to commit the murder after reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" and that he identified with the novel's protagonist Raskolnikov. He also linked his alleged identification to previously diagnosed health problems and justified the timing of the act with a so-called blood moon. However, the court did not find any such health issues that could have influenced his behavior.
In addition, the court ordered Isajev to pay procedural costs amounting to €12,010.
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Editor: Mirjam Mäekivi, Argo Ideon
