The director of the play Finist the Clear Sokol, Yevgenia Berkovich, was sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months, until July 4, 2023, in the case of “justifying terrorism,” which was brought against her and screenwriter Svetlana Petriychuk after a denunciation by the National Liberation Movement of Russia (NOD ). The meeting was broadcast by Mediazona.
The materials on the criminal case against Berkovich and Petriychuk will be considered separately by Judge Natalya Cheprasova.
About a hundred people gathered at the Zamoskvoretsky District Court, where the hearings are taking place. Some of them signed personal guarantees, which the defense then asked to add to the case. Guarantees were provided by cultural figures and human rights activists, including Oleg Menshikov, Veniamin Smekhov, Ksenia Sobchak, Nyuta Federmesser, Alexander Lungin, Elena Panfilova, Maxim Vitorgan, Arina Borodina, Konstantin Raikin.
The hearing was supposed to start at 2:00 pm, but it started later, as the case file did not reach the court on time. The media and Telegram channels published photos from the scene.
Earlier, Meduza studied the “comprehensive destructive forensics” in the case of Berkovich and Petriychuk, the document, among other things, says that “radical feminism” is as dangerous as the Islamic State. Roman Silantyev, the founder of the pseudoscience of “destructology”, took part in the examination (listed in the case as “historian, religious expert-destructologist”), as well as “linguist-destructologist” Galina Khizrieva and “destructologist, clinical psychologist, sociologist” Elena Zamyshevskaya. They concluded that the play and performance contained "signs of a justification of terrorism". According to experts, the participation of heroines in ISIS "is justified by the girlish naivety of the heroine and the desire to have a family," as well as "irresistible passion / love." The excerpts from the examination published by the publication also state that the materials of the play "may have an ideological or psychological impact on the audience and induce them to take actions aimed at destabilizing the activities of the authorities of the Russian Federation."
On May 4, Berkovich and Petriychuk were detained in Moscow in connection with a criminal case on “justifying terrorism.” A denunciation of their play Finist Yasny Sokol was written by members of the National Liberation Movement of Russia (NOD). It tells about women from Russia who decided to marry Islamists and leave for Syria, as a result of which they were recruited by militants. The authors of the denunciation complained, among other things, that during the performance the actors did not remind about the ban on ISIS in the Russian Federation. The premiere of the production took place in 2020. Initially, both Berkovich and Petriychuk were released after interrogation, but almost immediately they were detained again, already in the status of suspects.
