Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk were sentenced to six years in prison in the case of "justifying terrorism"

Judge Yuri Massin of the 2nd Western District Military Court sentenced director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk to six years in prison in the case of "justification of terrorism" (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code). This was reported to Meduza by a listener in the courtroom.

The defendants will serve their sentences in a general regime penal colony. They were also banned from administering websites for three years. The judge also ruled that the time Berkovich and Petriychuk spent in pretrial detention starting from May 4, 2023, be counted as "day for day."

The state prosecution requested the same sentence for the defendants - six years in prison.

On July 8, Berkovich and Petriychuk made their final statements. Since June 13, all court hearings on their case have been held behind closed doors, so journalists and listeners were not present when the defendants spoke.

Former CEO of Seventh Studio Alexey Malobrodsky and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov came to the courthouse to support the defendants, one of those present at the court told Meduza. According to him, about 80 people gathered near the court.

• Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk were detained in May 2023 because of the play "Finist the Bright Falcon". The investigation claims that the play, which tells the story of Russian girls who leave for Syria to find grooms, justifies terrorism. The investigation's conclusions are based, in particular, on the examination of the creator of "destructology" Roman Silantyev , who found "signs of the ideology of radical feminism" in the play. A second examination of the case was conducted by FSB expert Svetlana Mochalova , who found in the play a romanticization of the image of a terrorist and discrimination against Russian men.
• The main witness for the prosecution was Vladimir Karpuk , an actor and director from Nizhny Novgorod who wrote a denunciation of the play. The case also includes a secret witness , "Nikita" , who brought a video recording of the play's reading to the "E" Center.
• On June 13, Judge Yuriy Massin, at the request of the prosecutor, closed the court hearings in the case of Berkovich and Petriychuk. As a result, the hearings, at which the defense presented evidence of the innocence of Berkovich and Petriychuk, were held without the presence of listeners and journalists. On July 4, the debates began, which are also held behind closed doors.
• In 2022, the production "Finist the Bright Falcon" received the Golden Mask award.