Russian playwright and director faces 6 years in prison for ‘justifying terrorism’

A Russian prosecutor has sought a six-year prison sentence for a playwright and director accused of “justifying terrorism” in a 2021 play about women marrying jihadists in Syria, lawyers said on Friday.

Director Yevgenia Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petrichuk have been put on trial in connection with their play about Russian women lured into marriages with Islamic State (IS) fighters.

The director’s lawyers, Advokaty Pro Lyudei, wrote on Telegram that the prosecutor at a closed trial in Moscow on Thursday requested that Berkovich, 39, and Petriychuk, 44, be sentenced to six years in a penal colony.

The next hearing will be held on Monday.

The arrest of the women last May has shaken the Russian arts community, which has been facing increasing pressure from the Kremlin since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in early 2022.

Their trial began in May this year and last month a judge ruled that, at the request of the prosecution, the hearings would continue behind closed doors.

Their play Finist The Brave Falcon is about Russian women who are urged online to join the Islamic State and then accused of terrorism when they return home.

The performance won two Golden Masks, the most important theatre award in Russia.

Berkovich is also the author of poems criticizing the Russian military offensive in Ukraine.

Her supporters say she could be punished for these verses.

Human rights group Amnesty International said the pair were “persecuted simply for exercising their right to freedom of expression” and called for their immediate release.