Murder charges are dropped against three Russian sisters who killed their 'rapist' father while he slept

• Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan suffered years of 'sexual abuse'
• The teens killed Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57, with his hunting knife and a hammer
• There was a public outcry when they were charged with murdering their father
• Prosecutors have now dropped charges and reclassified attack as 'self defence'  

Russian prosecutors have dramatically dropped murder charges against three teenage sisters who killed their 'rapist' father while he slept.

Krestina, Angelina and Maria Khachaturyan - aged 19, 18 and 17 when they killed Mikhail Khachaturyan, 57 - claimed they suffered years of 'torture and sexual abuse' from their 'controlling paedophile father'. 

Russia's Prosecutor General's office has now ordered the case to be reclassified as 'self defence' after a high profile campaign, the sister's lawyer Alexei Parshin said.

It means they no longer face the threat of jail.

The decision follows a public outcry and more than 350,000 people signed a petition demanding the sisters should not face murder charges. 

The change was made in a statement from deputy General Prosecutor of Russia Viktor Grin, according to reports today.

Evidence reported from the investigation revealed the father told one of his 'terrified' daughters: 'You will take the place of your mother.

'I will marry you and you will give birth to my baby.'

An experts' report said: 'He ordered them to get undressed in front of him, saying that he wanted to 'check' them.

'Then ordered them to masturbate him, saying that he had problems with his prostate and it would be a cure.'

He 'abused and humiliated' them 'with various weapons'.

Angelina had blood streaming from her face after one attack by her father who had links both to senior Russian officials and criminal bosses, say reports.

The sisters admitted that Khachaturyan was sedated and sitting in an armchair and not directly threatening them when they took his life in 2018 with his hunting knife and a hammer.

Initially Maria had claimed he was attacking them with a knife when they killed him.

In a police video at the crime scene, their family flat, Maria said: 'He was sitting in this armchair, in that corner.

'Me and Angelina approached from the back, she had a hammer, I had a knife .'

Angelina said she had been preparing food for their divorced father with whom they lived.

'Then we said - let's try, take a risk,' said Angelina.

'And we asked our eldest sister, so she helped us and sprayed pepper spray.

'I was on the left, Maria on the right.

'She first stabbed him with the knife.

'He woke up.

'Then I hit him with the hammer. Twice. '

Then he came round and pulled himself up asking: 'What's going on?'

Maria said: 'We approached from the back and attacked.

'Simultaneously. I stabbed him in his neck from the back.

'From the side Angelina hit him with the hammer, several times on his head.

'It seems that I stabbed him twice in the neck and Angelina hit him twice with the hammer.

'He immediately stood up. Like jumped.

'He was saying something unclear, like 'I need to wash my face'.'

Later he was found to have been stabbed through the heart with his hunting knife.

The shocking case had transfixed Russians amid defence demands that the sisters has been tortured and raped by their father so they could not be held responsible for their actions.

Some relatives claimed their father was not the ogre they described.

Two of the three, Krestina and Angelina, had faced jail for between eight and 20 years.

A court earlier ruled that Maria did not understand her actions when she was part of the alleged 'group' conspiracy kill their 'mafia boss' father.

After the attack, Maria admitted:'We all were scared.

'It seems that Krestina checked his pulse.

'I called to the ambulance and police.'

Prosecutors concluded the sisters' actions were 'carried out within the legal limits of the necessary self-defence,' said Parshin.

Today's decision was seen as a landmark in Russia too recognise the devastating impact of domestic abuse.

Before the prosecutor's change of heart Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak had warned: 'If the Khachaturyan sisters are imprisoned (for murder)... it will be a disgrace to Russian justice.'

The girls were the victims of a father with proven 'serious mental problems', she said.

They acted in self-defence.

'The girls were fighting for their lives...they actually had no other choice,' she said.