Court in Moscow extended the arrest of Berkovich and Petriychuk in the case of incitement to terrorism

The Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow extended until November 4 the term of arrest of director Yevgenia Berkovich and screenwriter Svetlana Petriychuk in the case of incitement to terrorism because of the play Finist Yasny Sokol. This is reported by TASS with reference to the press service of the court.

According to Mediazona (recognized as a foreign agent), investigator Dmitry Poleshchuk asked to extend the arrest. In his opinion, Mrs. Berkovich and Petriychuk can influence witnesses or run away.

In turn, the defense asked to release Yevgenia Berkovich from the pre-trial detention center, since she has two adopted daughters aged 17 and 19 and two grandmothers born in 1934 in her care. According to experts, the conclusion of Mrs. Berkovich has a bad effect on the health of her adopted daughters.

At the meeting, the defense also read out the names of those who vouched for Yevgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk. Among them are TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak and actors Oleg Menshikov and Konstantin Raikin.

On May 4, the homes of Yevgenia Berkovich’s parents and grandmother were searched, and she herself was detained in Moscow. Later it became known that Svetlana Petriychuk was detained at Vnukovo airport. On the same day, they were charged in the case of justifying terrorism (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) due to the publication of a reading of the play Finist the Clear Falcon on the YouTube video hosting. They face up to seven years in prison.

Finist Yasny Sokol tells the story of Russian women who are recruited online by radical Islamists to travel to Syria. The play received two Golden Mask awards.

According to the results of a destructive forensic examination, the performance was found to contain “signs of the ideology of radical feminism and the struggle against the androcentric social structure of Russia.” In June, the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Science (RFTsSE) under the Ministry of Justice acknowledged unscientific destructive expertise, which formed the basis of the case. The department’s response was published by Svetlana Petriychuk’s lawyer.

More about the case – in the material “Kommersant” “The court did not raise the curtain”.

Olesya Pavlenko