"I managed to escape": They tried to rape me in a taxi
Last week a Moscow resident Anna Brain, a journalist and fashion blogger, said that the Uber driver tried to rape her. According to her, she called a taxi to the house, but on the way, the driver abruptly changed the route, blocked the doors and made an unequivocal attempt at violence. But the girl managed to escape.
Now around the incident under investigation. The press service of Uber told us that they regret what happened to Anna, and the driver was blocked at least until the end of the proceedings. “According to the global service policy, the provision of personal data for both the driver and the user is possible only after receiving a formal request from law enforcement agencies,” Uber representatives said. “The support staff explained to Anna what should be done to obtain the data. After we received the relevant request, we have provided all the necessary information. The support service is in constant dialogue with Anna and her lawyer. "
This week, Anna Brain launched a petition demanding that Uber be obliged to provide clients with access to complete travel information — the driver’s phone number, route details, and the car number — after its completion (now this is possible only by an official police request). We talked with Anna about what happened and what she is going to do next.
I take a taxi up to five times a day. I do not take the subway, and if I can’t get somewhere by ground public transport, trolleybus or bus, I take a taxi. Since I travel a lot around the city, taxis are a big part of my life.
It happened on Monday, the twenty-fifth of June. At nine in the evening I took a taxi from a friend with whom we watched the match Russia - Uruguay. From Shabolovskaya to my house at the Patriarshykh’s for twenty minutes, considering that it was Monday and not late at night. When I got into the car, I got the phone. I tried to charge it, reseating it in the front seat, but my charge didn’t work much the last time, so nothing happened and I moved back.
We drove along the Garden Ring in the direction of my house, but in the Novinsky Boulevard area the taxi driver turned and drove in the opposite direction. I asked why we were going there again, he replied that he needed to refuel. Until a certain moment, I didn’t have an idea that I had to jump out of the car, because a person seemed to say that he had gone to refuel - why should I worry? It happens, gasoline ends. But when I took my eyes off the phone, I saw that something was wrong and we were obviously not going to the side of my house.
Then the driver delivered me to a deserted place in the Shabolovskaya area and tried to rape me. As the pre-investigation check is now being conducted, I cannot go into details, but it was not a “knee-down” - everything was concrete and unequivocal. The driver blocked the car door and hit me. I recorded beatings, there was a fingal under my right eye - now it is, of course, less, because a week has passed.
On the driver's side, give different comments. First, he says that I refused to pay. But we have an official paper stating that I was paying with a card: in principle, I have no cash, all the money is on it. The second moment - he says that I was supposedly drunk. But there are medical examination documents in the case, which show that there was nothing in my blood - neither alcohol nor drugs. The claims of the driver that I was drunk and smoked in his car are not credible.
I managed to escape: I felt the button on the door with my good hand, my second hand was injured. I ran out, ran to the subway, because there were more people there, and turned for help to the first girl I found - now she appears as a witness in the case. She tried to calm me down for half an hour. I asked her to contact at least someone with the numbers that I remember (my phone was already dead), I called the car home. At that moment I didn’t even have an idea that I should call the police, detain the taxi driver: I was in a state of shock. I just wanted to be home faster, where no one would touch me.
I applied to Uber on the same evening, but received no answer - and the next day I wrote to them on Facebook. They are ready to cooperate with the investigation and to provide us with materials to the maximum. When we made an official request to the police, they gave us information in less than a day. They are not willing to take responsibility for this event, but they contribute. As I was explained in the Uber office, in connection with the law on the protection of personal data, after completing the order, the maximum that can be viewed is the make of car, the last name and the name of the driver. I did not take screenshots and, to be honest, I never thought that this was required. All work officially, and they should be responsible for your safety, not you yourself.
The next morning, I wrote a statement to the police and then thirteen “fun” hours spent on investigative actions and interrogations. I wasn’t allowed to go outside the OMVD territory: I asked to go out to buy water, they told me no, and they significantly closed the entrance. I asked why they treat me this way, because I am not a criminal, but an accuser, but I was not released anyway and was kept without water all day. They put pressure on me — for example, they told me to indicate any place where the crime had been committed, so that they would go home as soon as possible. They said that I myself offered the man "services", but he did not want to pay for them, and I wrote a statement out of evil. To the question "What services?" no one answered. The police indirectly tried to do everything so that I took the statement.
I read that these actions were checked and no violations were detected. But it would be strange if they came with a check, and the operatives said: "Yes, we really behaved terribly," - just the same does not happen. There is nothing surprising either in this or in the driver’s comments — he would hardly have confessed.
I passed a medical examination, took a beating - all this is in the documents. The confrontation, identification and polygraph should be this week. I have never seen a taxi driver ever since - again, in the interests of the investigation. A lawyer and I think that there is a possibility that they will try to hush up and shut up the case.
It seems to me that since the accused is an Iraqi citizen, he had to take more serious measures. I believe that he should sit in the SIZO, and not under a recognizance not to leave - in case he tries to flee to his country. He can leave at any time, and in another country we will no longer have any weight and will not be able to prove anything.
Naturally, I get a lot of negativity from people who believe that I myself am to blame. But most of the messages are still good, and this shows that there are more good people in the world. Many people tell similar stories and say that they were afraid to write a statement, because they could accept it the same way as mine: “I blame myself - I put the short skirt on, it was brightly colored,” - that's all that is accepted.
Mom was up to the last to the fact that I made this story public, saying that the truth would not be on my side. On the day of the application, I called her, I cried very much, and she said that it was better to pick him up, because nothing could be solved in this way. She said that the state is always not on our side, that it is impossible to prove an attempt to rape a taxi in which there were only two people. Mom was extremely unhappy with what was happening, she was very unpleasant that this is happening. But when she saw after my post on Facebook that people began to react sharply to it, everything changed.
I launched a petition. I created it in order to change my attitude to security at least in Uber in Russia. During the week I tried to request data in order to at least calculate the person who entered wrongfully. What can we say if he even has a name other than the one specified in the application? A person can hide, and his guilt will prove impossible. The petition is about that.
What's next? First of all, I would like to wait for the trial and prove the guilt of the driver. Then I would like to get justice over the police, who did not interview me properly, but only were rude and rude. And the third item will be a lawsuit against Uber. It seems to me that it is impossible to let everything go by itself - otherwise everything will always be the same as in the case with me. Drivers will drive under fake names, police will press and demand that the victim take the application, and Uber will hire those who in fact do not even check.