2 Russians found guilty of ‘justifying terrorism’ in their play about ISIS
A Russian military court on Monday found a playwright and a theater director guilty of “justifying terrorism” and sentenced them each to six years in prison in a case that critics say is the latest chilling example of the suppression of free speech since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The playwright, Svetlana Petriychuk, 44, and the director, Yevgenia Berkovich, 39, both celebrated members of the Russian theater world, have been in prison since May 2023. In addition to the six-year sentences, the exact term sought by prosecutors, both women will be banned from “operating websites” for three years after their release.
The play that Ms. Petriychuk wrote and Ms. Berkovich staged, “Finist the Brave Falcon,” is an adaptation of a classic fairy tale of the same name, interwoven with the stories of women who were lured online by men to join the Islamic State. It is loosely based on the true stories of thousands of women from across Russia and the former Soviet Union who were recruited by ISIS terrorists. The play’s main character returns to Russia feeling betrayed and disappointed by the man who lured her there, only to be sentenced to prison as a terrorist herself.
The prosecutor, Ekaterina Denisova, maintained that Ms Petriychuk adheres to “extremely aggressive Islamic ideologies” and has a “positive opinion” about ISIS, according to the Russian news agency RBK, and that Ms Berkovich “has ideological beliefs related to the justification and propaganda of terrorism.”
Both the women and their lawyers pleaded not guilty. During the trial, they repeatedly stressed that the play had an explicit anti-terrorist message.
“I absolutely do not understand what these words have to do with me,” Ms. Berkovich said when she pleaded innocent. “I have never participated in any form of Islam: neither radical nor other. I respect the religion of Islam and I feel nothing but condemnation and disgust towards terrorists.”
In Russia, where more than 99 percent of criminal cases result in convictions, the verdict seemed almost certain. Judges sided with the prosecution and the witnesses they had called. One witness, an expert from the Federal Security Service, the modern successor to the KGB, claimed that because the play was based on a fairy tale, and fairy tales have happy endings, the play “romanticized the image of terrorism.”
The play premiered in 2020 and later won two Golden Masks, the highest award in Russian theater and an award supported by official bodies including the Moscow Mayor’s Office and the country’s Ministry of Culture.
Immediately following the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies launched a campaign of widespread repression, effectively criminalizing anti-war sentiment.
The criminal case against Ms Petriychuk and Ms Berkovich began months after a pro-Kremlin actor posted a message on the social network VK.com expressing disgust that a play directed by an anti-war liberal would be staged in his city, Nizhny Novgorod, in the aftermath of Ukraine’s attack on the Crimean bridge earlier that month. He called the show “undisguised sympathy for Ukraine and hatred of the current government.”
The appearance was canceled and the man, Vladimir Karpuk, eventually became one of the key witnesses for the prosecution.
The case has been condemned by many prominent Russian intellectuals and artists, including Nobel laureate Dmitry A. Muratov and director Kirill Serebrennikov, under whom Ms. Berkovich studied. The women have also received support from Amnesty International, which said the women were “targeted for exercising the right to freedom of expression,” and from Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations.
The trial at the Second Western District Military Court was closed to the public after the prosecution’s witnesses finished testifying. But a crowd of dozens gathered outside the courthouse Monday night to show support for the women, and some were allowed inside to hear the verdict.
The two women supporting them claim that this is the first time in post-Soviet Russia that a work of art has been effectively put on trial. More than 16,000 people signed a letterinitiated by the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, in the aftermath of the arrests of Ms Petriychuk and Ms Berkovich last year.
“We are against the prosecution of people on trumped-up charges,” the letter said. “Against ideology that governs the arts. Against the destruction of theatre and culture. Against the singling out and kidnapping of people in the theatre industry who have decided to stay in their home countries.”
