Vyacheslav Matrosov (R) no longer faces a murder probe over Oleg Sviridov’s death (Picture: east2west news)
A father who forced his friend to dig his own grave before ‘inciting’ him to die by suicide for abusing his daughter has been freed from jail.
Russian Vyacheslav Matrosov, 35, was jailed in a penal colony for 18 months but how now been freed one year early after serving six months.
He forced his friend, Oleg Sviridov, 32, to dig an unmarked grave in a forest near the village of Vintai in the eastern region of Samara last year.
The rocket engine factory worker discovered haunting mobile phone footage of Sviridov forcing his daughter, then aged six, to perform a sex act on him.
His daughter, now nine, was heard begging: ‘Oleg, that’s enough, I can’t take it anymore. I want to go home’.
The friends fought on the village’s outskirts in September 2021 which ended with Sviridov’s corpse being found in the makeshift burial.
Matrosov’s nine-year-old daughter was an alleged victim of Svirdov (Picture: east2west news)
Sviridov’s body was found in a grave he dug himself (Picture: east2west news)
Vintai villagers petitioned for his acquittal and early release (Picture: east2west news)
But Matrosov no longer faces a murder probe after investigators concluded Sviridov died by suicide.
Matrosov was initially held on suspicion of murder, a charge that touched off a wave of sympathy and outrage from Russians who saw this as unfair.
Vintai villagers started a petition for Matrosov to be acquitted and spared jail by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee.
The petition, signed by more than 2,500 people, said: ‘Every father would have done this [killed someone they saw abusing their child].
‘This will be an example to everyone.’
In April, Krasnoglinsky Court in Samara sentenced Matrosov to 18 months for ‘inciting’ his friend ‘into suicide’.
If he had been charged with murder, he could have been jailed for 15 years.
Now freed, a spirited Matrosov posted a picture with his wife Natalya, 35, writing: ‘Home. Love very much.’
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The father saw a video of his friend abusing his own child.