Armenian stepmother accused of trying to kill toddler remanded in custody

A court in Armenia has ordered the pre-trial detention of a woman accused of attempting to kill her 14-month-old stepson, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The suspect has been remanded in custody for two months.

Prosecutors claim the child was subjected to repeated abuse between January 22 and March 10 in Yerevan’s Arabkir district, culminating in an attempted killing on March 15.

The boy was rushed to the Arabkir Medical Center in a state of clinical death shortly after midnight on March 16. Doctors managed to revive him after about an hour of emergency treatment, but he remains in critical condition.

According to officials, the child had been living with his father and stepmother in Yerevan. His biological mother, a resident of the Masis community in Ararat Province, has three other children, two of whom are under guardianship while another lives with a grandmother.