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Russian Court Sentences Playwright, Jewish Theater Director to Prison for ‘Justifying Terrorism’ in Award-Winning Play
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk stand inside an enclosure for defendants during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia on July 8, 2024. Photo: Reuters/Yulia Morozova
A court in Russia on Monday sentenced a playwright and theater director to six years each in prison for “justifying terrorism” with an award-winning play they staged together that focuses on Russian women being lured into marrying Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Syria.
Authorities arrested playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, 44, and theater director Zhenya Berkovich, 39, in May 2023. They had been in jail for over a year awaiting trial over their play “Finist the Bright Falcon,” which was first staged in 2021, shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Berkovich runs an independent theater production in Moscow called Soso’s Daughters. In April, she and Petriychuk were added to Russia’s official list of “terrorists and extremists.”
Berkovich, who is Jewish and has two adopted daughters, wrote a series of poems condemning Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She also participated in an anti-war protest and was jailed for 11 days. Her supporters believe that her arrest and sentencing regarding “Finist the Bright Falcon” has to do more with her opposition to the Russia-Ukraine war and less with the play’s message.
Justifying terrorism is a criminal offense in Russia and is punishable by up to seven years in prison. Berkovich and Petriychuk have repeatedly denied accusations of propagating terrorism since their arrest and throughout their seven-week trial.
At the opening of the trial last month, Berkovich said, “I staged the performance to prevent terrorism,” adding that she had “nothing but condemnation and disgust” towards terrorists, Reuters reported. Petriychuk echoed similar sentiments, saying that she wrote the play in order to prevent incidents such as those depicted in the play, according to The Associated Press.
Their lawyers noted in court that the play was supported by the Russian Culture Ministry and won the Golden Mask award, which is Russia’s most prestigious national theater award. The play was also reportedly read to inmates of a women’s prison in Siberia in 2019 and was praised by Russia’s state penitentiary service.
Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch, wrote on X/Twitter that the sentence was based on “utterly absurd” charges and “in an unfair trial that is blatant retaliation against Berkovich for speaking out against Russia’s war on Ukraine.” She added that the verdict is “disgraceful and should be annulled,” and that Berkovich and Petriychuk “should be freed immediately.”
More than 16,000 people signed an open letter in support of Petriychuk and Berkovich that insisted the play “carries an absolutely clear anti-terrorist sentiment.” A number of Russian actors, directors, and journalists also signed affidavits that called on the court to release the pair from custody pending their trial but to no avail, Reuters reported.
Defense lawyer Ksenia Karpinskaya said on Monday she will appeal the court’s verdict, which she called a “cruel sentence.”
