MOSCOW, April 3 - RAPSI. The Texan authorities are investigating allegations that a 16-year-old Russian girl was sexually abused by her adoptive American father, said Shari Pulliam from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in an email to RIA Novosti.

The girl's adoptive mother, who denies the allegation, told RIA Novosti in a telephone interview that her daughter had contacted local social workers with claims that she had been raped.

The hearing is set to begin at the Hardin County Court on April 16.

Pulliam said the girl and her 15-year-old sister, also an adoptee from Russia, were removed from their home on March 21 and placed in a foster home together pending the investigation.

Children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov has identified the Texan couple as Michael and Penny Deckert from Silsbee. They adopted three Russian siblings, Alexei, Anastasia and Svetlana Klimov, from an orphanage in the Perm region in January 2003.

Penny Deckert has denied allegations and media reports claiming that they regularly abused and beat the three Russian adoptees. She has also said that the children have significant behavioral problems.

The couple's adopted son Zackary (Alexei), 17, is considered missing, Pulliam told RIA Novosti, adding that the last confirmed sighting of him was on June 8, 2012. Information about Zackary has been posted on the website of the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

In January 2013, Moscow banned Americans from adopting Russian children as part of legislation passed shortly after Washington adopted the Magnitsky Act, which introduced sanctions against Russian officials suspected of human rights abuses.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Magnitsky Act had triggered the adoption ban. But Russian officials also cite the deaths of at least 20 Russian adoptees in the United States during the past two decades as a driving factor in Moscow's push for the ban.