Russia jails playwright and director for 'justifying terrorism'
Entertainment
The women's arrest sent shock waves through Russia's artistic community
(Web Desk) - A Russian military court on Monday sentenced a playwright and a theatre director to six years in prison on charges of "justifying terrorism" in a play about women marrying jihadists in Syria.
The judge sentenced director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk after moving their trial behind closed doors.
The women's arrest in May last year sent shock waves through Russia's artistic community, which has faced unprecedented pressure from the Kremlin since Russia sent troops to Ukraine.
The length of the sentence announced by the judge Monday was the same as requested by prosecutors last week and one year less than the maximum possible.
Berkovich, 39, has written poems criticising Russia's military offensive in Ukraine and her supporters said they believed the court case could be linked to this. Rachel Denber, deputy director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, wrote on X that the women were sentenced "on utterly absurd charges, in an unfair trial that is blatant retaliation against Berkovich for speaking out against Russia's war on Ukraine".
Human rights group Amnesty International said the pair were "being targeted simply for exercising the right to freedom of expression" and called for their immediate release.
The two women were brought in for the sentencing wearing handcuffs and sat in a glass-walled dock in a courtroom heavily guarded by police with masked faces, AFP journalists saw.
