A theatre director and a playwright have appeared in court docket accused of justifying terrorism with a play they first staged in Moscow again in 2020.
The trial of Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk is the primary high-profile case since Soviet instances to be primarily based on the contents of a theatre manufacturing.
Their supporters consider the prosecution is a part of a Kremlin-led cultural purge.
“It is absurd,” Elena Efros, Zhenya’s mom, advised Sky Information exterior the navy court docket in east Moscow.
“I’m positive [the witnesses] will say every part essential to show, so far as attainable, the absurdity of this accusation,” she stated.
The play, referred to as Finist, The Courageous Falcon, is about Russian ladies who turned radicalised and travelled to Syria to marry Islamic State fighters. It’s primarily based on the transcripts of actual police interviews.
To start with, it was met with vital acclaim. It gained two Golden Masks awards – Russia’s reply to the Oliviers and Tonys.
It was even recommended by the Russian jail service, in keeping with Petriychuk’s lawyer, who advised a earlier listening to it had been learn to inmates at a penal colony in Siberia.
However then Russia invaded Ukraine.
Berkovich and Petriychuk had been arrested in Might 2023, regardless of the play not being staged. State-appointed consultants had combed by means of the textual content and located “traces of Isis ideology” and “radical feminism”.
On the time, pals stated it was a smokescreen, believing they had been detained for Berkovich’s anti-war poetry and former protests.
Natalya Livshits was amongst round a dozen supporters who had been at this listening to. She did not know the ladies earlier than they had been arrested however started sending them letters quickly afterwards due to her “outrage” at their case.
“This should not occur,” she stated. “That is why I come to each listening to.”
Members of the media had been allowed to briefly movie contained in the courtroom earlier than the trial acquired below method.
Berkovich and Petrichyuk had been locked contained in the glass cage, generally known as “the aquarium”, the place defendants are all the time positioned.
The pair appeared relaxed as they sometimes laughed and gestured to family members.
To her mom, Berkovich made a “cat” image – V-signs with the index and center fingers on each arms, with one behind the opposite.
“They appear effectively,” Berkovich’s mom stated. “They’re assured, brave, cheerful.”
She added: “This verdict would not depend upon us, on what occurs in court docket, however on how the celebrities align.”