Married couple severely punished for having underage sex

Drama has hit the Russian region of Tula near Moscow as a 19-year-old man has been imprisoned for having sex with his underage wife, who is the mother of his newborn daughter.

The young couple?s love has fallen victim to controversial Russian legislation. 19-year-old Zhenya is now in prison for having sex with his own wife Katya, meaning she has to take care of their baby without a father figure.

Russian law, simply put, states that you can marry an underage person with the permission of the parents, but you cannot have sex with this person. Zhenya, however, did not even know he was violating the law.

"When we met I told Zhenya I was almost 17. In fact I was two years younger. I lied because I liked him very much, but I was afraid he wouldn`t go out with me if I told him my real age. He only found out after I got pregnant," Katya says.

The baby has two loving grandmothers helping Katya, who they say is a child herself. The family believes the young couple did not receive proper legal protection.

"The public defence attorney we had lied to us. She said he has to admit his guilt and then nothing will happen to him. So he did and they put him in jail. She did nothing to protect our interests. We found a new lawyer and appealed," says Katya?s mother Elena Karpova.

Boris Altshuler is a children`s rights expert and says cases like this one should be inspected on an individual basis, rather than simply following the law. He says the prosecutors used this case heartlessly for their own interests. For prosecutors it?s just a good report for their chiefs - they did a good job and have exposed a crime.

Meanwhile, the single mother is struggling. Katya can`t breast feed the baby anymore due to stress. She also has to miss outs on school lessons, because Zhenya used to babysit while she was studying.

Zhenya is not allowed to see his wife, let alone his daughter. If the family loses the appeal, the young father would not only miss his baby`s first steps and words, but also in three years time will become a total stranger to his little girl.

sections: Society