Week-ending 26 June 2020
On 26 June 2020 a Moscow court convicted theatre and film director Kirill Serebrennikov of fraud and handed him a suspended sentence. Human Rights Watch had been among those calling for the director to be acquitted of all charges. In a statement, the organisation commented: ‘The state’s leap to criminal embezzlement charges seems to be a thinly veiled way to retaliate against Serebrennikov for his political criticism and to send a chilling message to other artists – who have no choice but to accept state funding to survive as artists – to refrain from political criticism.’
Sources:
Prosecutor Seeks Six Years In Prison For Russian Director Serebrennikov
MOSCOW – Prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to sentence acclaimed theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov to six years in prison on embezzlement charges he denies. Prosecutor Mikhail Reznichenko said at the trial as it resumed on June 22 that it had been proven Serebrennikov and other defendants in the case had embezzled almost 129 million rubles (more than $1.86 million). All of the accused have denied the accusation. Reznichenko asked the Meshchansky District Court to sentence three other defendants to prison terms of between four years and five years. RFE/RL, 22 June 2020
Kirill Serebrennikov
UPDATE: On June 25, 2020, ARC together with Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Film Network, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) and its initiators, the European Film Academy (EFA), the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), as well as the International Documentary Association (IDA), the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) and the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), call on the prosecution to immediately drop the criminal charges against them. Artists At Risk Connection, 25 June 2020
Drop Charges Against Russian Theater Director Kirill Serebrennikov
On Friday, June 26, Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court is expected to deliver the verdict in the criminal embezzlement case against Kirill Serebrennikov, a prominent theater director in Russia, and his co-defendants, Sofia Apfelbaum, Alexei Malobrodsky, and Yuri Itin.
PEN America’s Artists At Risk Connection (ARC), together with Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Film Network, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) and its initiators, the European Film Academy (EFA), the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), and the Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), as well as the International Documentary Association (IDA), the Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) and the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA), call on the prosecution to immediately drop the criminal charges against them. Human Rights Watch, 25 June 2020
Top Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov convicted of fraud
A Moscow court has convicted an avant garde theatre director of embezzlement but declined to give him a prison sentence in a case seen as a bellwether for artistic freedoms in the country. Likely bowing to public pressure, a Moscow judge gave Kirill Serebrennikov a suspended sentence, meaning he would walk free on Friday, ending a three-year legal ordeal that had galvanised Russia’s arts community in support of the celebrated director. The Guardian, 26 June 2020
