Evgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk will remain in custody until March 10

The investigation into the case of director Evgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk for justifying terrorism may be completed in the next two months. During this time, it is necessary to bring charges against Ms. Berkovich and Petriychuk in the final version and fulfill the requirements of Art. 215–220 Code of Criminal Procedure (on completion of the preliminary investigation). A representative of the investigation announced this in court on Tuesday during the consideration of a petition to extend the preventive measure against the accused. The arrest period for the defendants expired on January 10, but the Zamoskvoretsky District Court extended it until March 10. According to Ms. Berkovich’s lawyer, Ksenia Karpinskaya, the preliminary investigation has already been completed, and at the moment the defense and the accused are familiarizing themselves with the case materials.

We would like to remind you that in April last year, a criminal case was opened against Evgenia Berkovich and Svetlana Petriychuk under the article on justification of terrorism (Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code), and since May 5, 2023, they have been in pre-trial detention center. The reason was the play “Finist Yasny Falcon”, staged by Evgenia Berkovich in 2020 based on the play by Svetlana Petriychuk. It tells the story of Russian women recruited by radical Islamists on dating sites to travel to Syria. In 2022, the production received two Golden Mask awards (awarded with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Moscow government) – for the best work of a costume designer and the best work of a playwright.

The accusation was based on an examination of the performance conducted by the head of the laboratory of destructology at Moscow State Linguistic University, Roman Silantiev. It claims that the authors of the production glorify ISIS (a terrorist organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) and at the same time spread the ideology of radical feminism. Later, the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation concluded that the examination cannot be included in the list of forensic examinations due to its unscientific nature. Yesterday, the investigator explained that a new conclusion from a comprehensive forensic psychological-linguistic auto-editing examination had been received. Ms. Karpinskaya emphasized that the results of the examination are “opposite to the conclusions” of the previous study.

The authors of the production do not admit their guilt. During the investigation, Ms. Berkovich and Petriychuk repeatedly asked to change the measure of restraint to house arrest, but their complaints were not satisfied.

Polina Yachmennikova