MOSCOW — The prosecution is calling for a six-year sentence for a Russian theater director and a playwright who are accused of advocating terrorism in a play and have been behind bars for more than a year, their lawyers said Friday.
The lawyers said in a Telegram post that the sentence demand was made Thursday in the trial of Zhenya Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk, which comes during a crackdown on dissent in Russia that has reached new heights since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine. Director Berkovich and playwright Petriychuk face the charges for the play “Finist, the Brave Falcon,” about a Russian woman who becomes enamored online, goes to Syria and then faces trial on terrorism charges upon returning to Russia.
Authorities say the play attempts to justify terrorism, but Berkovich has testified in court that she staged the play in order to prevent terrorism. The women’s lawyers have noted at court hearings that the play was supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and won the Golden Mask award, Russia’s most prestigious national theater award. In 2019, the play was read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia, and Russia’s state penitentiary service praised it on its website, Petriychuk’s lawyer has said.