Director and director Kirill Serebrennikov, a famous figure in the Russian artistic community, was sentenced on Friday June 26 to Moscow to a suspended prison sentence for embezzlement in a controversial case.
The case, which was opened three years ago, was considered by the filmmaker’s supporters to be a political affair testing artistic freedom in Russia.
Six years in prison required by the prosecution
“The rehabilitation of Serebrennikov is possible without any real penalty” deprivation of liberty, said judge Olessya Mendeleeva, who sentenced him to three years in prison, a ban on directing any cultural organization, a fine and three years of probation.
The prosecution had requested six years in prison against the artist who has always dismissed the charges against him. When the judgment was announced, the hundreds of his supporters gathered before the Mechtchanski court in the Russian capital reacted with applause, fearing a heavy prison sentence.
Wearing a black hooded sweater and cap and wearing the same color sanitary mask due to the new coronavirus, Kirill Serebrennikov, 50, declined to comment on the court decision.
Convicted for embezzlement
Artistic director of the Gogol Center, a famous Moscow theater, director Summer awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and opera director, he was convicted for the misappropriation between 2011 and 2014 of approximately 129 million rubles (1.65 million euros at the current rate) of public subsidies for the purposes of” personal enrichment “.
“Kirill is devastated by the conviction, but he is very happy to go home”, said his lawyer Dmitry Kharitonov.
Two other accused in this case, Iouri Itine and Konstantin Malobrodski, were given suspended sentences of two and three years respectively. The last, Sofia Apfelbaum, is fined that she will not have to pay because it is covered by prescription. She burst into tears at the statement of these sanctions.
The judge found that the accused had acted in an organized gang and that Kirill Serebrennikov had “Directed all members of the group and took steps to conceal the thefts”.
Support from artistic personalities in Russia and abroad
Asked during a press conference before the sentencing, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, pointed out that “The right to freedom of expression and the possibility of presenting different political opinions” were also worth “For Russia”.
Olivier Py, director of the Festival d’Avignon, a friend of Kirill Serebrennikov, had denounced “A political trial, a return to the Stalinist USSR”.
“We had to send a clear message to all the dissidents. It is he who pays the price but he fought for freedom of expression, the right to be different. The homosexual cause that he has often staged in his shows is a dividing point in today’s Russia ”, he added.
Arrested in August 2017 on a shoot in Saint Petersburg, Kirill Serebrennikov had been under house arrest in Moscow until April 2019.
Many Russian and foreign personalities expressed their support for him, considering that his art in contradiction with the conservatism of the authorities had made him his enemies.
“Pressures” suffered by the ex-accountant of the troop
In September 2019, justice had lifted his house arrest and returned the file to the prosecution, considering it incomplete. But new expertise concluded in early June that the director and his team had received an overpayment of about 129 million rubles in state aid.
“In this case, there is no evidence of dishonest behavior on my part”Kirill Serebrennikov said Monday, June 22, accusing investigators of “Pressures” on the main prosecution witness, the former accountant of his troop, Seventh Studio.
For his supporters, he pays for his freedom of creation and his sometimes daring plays, mixing politics, sexuality and religion, in a country where the authorities are pushing for a strong return of “Traditional values” conservative.
Some 3,000 personalities from the world of culture called on Monday 22 June the Ministry of Culture to drop the charges, denouncing a “Business that was fabricated”.
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