After a closed-door debate in the 2nd Western District Military Court, director Evgenia Berkovich showed journalists the number six with her fingers, which may mean the term she requested in the Finist case. This can be seen in the recording published by SotaVision.
The defense of Berkovich and Petriychuk did not say what period the prosecution requested; the lawyers refused to comment.
Today only the prosecution and Petriychuk’s defense spoke in the debate. Berkovich's defense spoke at the following hearings.
Photo: Alexandra Astakhova/Mediazona
Director Evgeniya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk are accused of justifying terrorism (part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code) because of the play «Finist the Clear Falcon» about the fate of Russian women who marry Islamists and leave for Syria. An expert examination found «signs of radical feminist ideology» in this play. The girls have been in pretrial detention since May 2023.The court has been hearing the case since May 20 of this year. At the very first hearing, it became clear that the charges were based on contradictory testimony from anonymous witnesses.
At the same time, theater figures questioned in court, including the director of the Daughters of Soso theater, Alexander Andrievich, and the actresses of Finista, testified in favor of Berkovich and Petriychuk.
At the fourth hearing, actor Vladimir Karpuk spoke in court, who wrote a denunciation of the performance — because of him, in October 2022, the showing of “Finist” was disrupted in Nizhny Novgorod. After this, actress Natalya Gorbas spoke, whose testimony cast doubt on Karpuk’s words that he attended the performance.
At the seventh meeting, testimony was given by an employee of the “E” center, who compiled a report on the performance based on the testimony of an anonymous “concerned citizen.”
The anonymous “concerned citizen” was questioned at the eighth meeting. Judge Yuri Massin assigned the witness the pseudonym “Nikita” and decided to interrogate him via audio link with voice distortion. As follows from Nikita’s testimony, he worked at the Lyubimovka festival, where a reading of the play was presented back in 2019. He asked to keep his identity secret — because he was afraid for his career and health, although he admitted that he had not received any threats.
At the meeting on June 13, when it was the defense’s turn to present evidence, Judge Massin, upon request, The prosecutor closed the trial from listeners — because of “threats to one of the participants in the trial,” which were published on May 24.
In closed mode, the court questioned several witnesses and experts from the defense, whose testimony was not heard by anyone, except for the participants in the process. The meeting, at which Berkovich and Petriychuk themselves were interrogated, lasted nine hours. The debate will continue on July 8 at 10:00.