A court on Wednesday
acquitted a woman who drowned her infant son on grounds she is
of unsound mind and remanded her to a psychiatric ward.
Russian national Natalia Sotnikova, 40, was charged with
first-degree murder aggravated by cruelty after she drowned
10-month-old Semyon in the sea while holidaying in a luxury
hotel on the Liguria coast with her Russian oil broker husband
in December 2014.
She eventually told investigators she killed her baby
because she believed he had a serious inherited disease and she
didn't want him to suffer.
The woman reportedly changed her version of events several
times, having initially said she did not remember what happened
after going to the beach with the child in the middle of the
night.
The alarm was raised when she returned to her hotel
several hours later without him.
At one stage Sotnikova reportedly said she left the
infant on rocks in the Liguria town of Bordighera.
Then she reportedly changed her version of events, saying
she waded into to the sea with the baby, initially intending to
kill herself as well, but subsequently left him in the
water and walked out.
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