Court reduces sentences of Russian theatre director and playwright jailed for ‘justifying terrorism’

An appeals court in the Moscow region has reduced the prison sentences of Russian theatre director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk by several months, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

Berkovich and Petriychuk were both sentenced to six years in prison in July for their production of a play that was ruled by a Moscow court to have “justified terrorism”.

The sentence imposed on Berkovich was reduced by five months, while Petriychuk’s was commuted by just two months, Mediazona wrote.

Berkovich and Petriychuk’s controversial play, Finist, The Brave Falcon, told the stories of Russian women who travelled to Syria during the civil war to marry IS members they had met online. Although the play received two of Russia’s most prestigious theatre awards in 2022, it was later condemned by the Russian authorities who claimed that the production had “glorified terrorists”.

The women’s lawyers, Ksenia Karpinskaya and Yelena Oreshnikova, demanded during the hearing that the July verdict be overturned altogether, Mediazona reported, as they said it was based on the contradictory testimony of anonymous witnesses as well as “anti-scientific expertise”.

Karpinskaya previously told state-affiliated daily Kommersant that she was “outraged” by the poor quality of the investigation, saying that it had equated Islamic ideology to terrorism.

Berkovich and Petriychuk’s trial has been heavily criticised by high-profile Russian cultural figures, including former Novaya Gazeta editor-in-chief and Nobel laureate, Dmitry Muratov, and director Kirill Serebrennikov. Several human rights groups have called attention to what they believe is the first time in the post-Soviet period that a piece of art has been put on trial.