Police in western Siberia's Altai Territory initiated a criminal case against a couple accused of locking their 11-year-old son in a cage, local prosecutors said on Thursday.
The boy reportedly spent eight months in a wooden 1.5-meter cage constructed by his father and placed in a room of their house in the village of Kosh-Agach.
Investigators believe the parents caged their son, who is developmentally disabled, to prevent him from bothering them.
"As early as in 2007, doctors suggested the boy's mother admit him to a rehabilitation center. However, the woman refused, saying the family used the son's disability payments to repay loans," a spokesman for the local prosecutor's office said.
The couple faces three years in prison if found guilty of neglecting their parental duties.
Although this is the first such case in the Altai Territory, six years ago in western Siberia's Novosibirsk region, a 22-year-old woman was jailed for 14 years after her 5-year-old son starved to death while chained to a bed. The woman said she was trying to prevent the child from taking food without permission.
NOVOSIBIRSK, December 31 (RIA Novosti)
