MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld the arrest of stage director Yevgenia Berkovich, charged with excusing terrorism, the court told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The ruling of Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court of May 5, 2023, by which Berkovich was taken into custody until July 4, 2023, has been upheld, and the defense's appeal against the ruling has been dismissed," the court said.
The defense asked the appeal panel to declare the low court's ruling unlawful and to consider non-custodial restraint.
As in the lower court, the defense said that Berkovich has children, including those adopted and those who need care for health reasons.
Later in the day, the Moscow City Court made a similar decision on another defendant, playwright Svetlana Petriychuk.
Berkovich and Petriychuk are charged with justifying terrorism.
The charges brought against the stage director and the playwright are based on the show Finist the Brave Falcon, which according to the official announcement, is about "women who chose to virtually marry radical Islamists and go to Syria with them." Berkovich's defense said in court the case concerned posting a reading of the play on YouTube.
Berkovich and Petriychuk pleaded not guilty.
Berkovich is a Russian stage director, who graduated from Kirill Serebrennikov's class at the Moscow Art Theater Studio in 2013. She was a member of Serebrennikov's Studio Seven project.
Finist the Brave Falcon is a play by Berkovich based on Petriychuk's script. It won the Golden Mask award in the Best Playwright and Best Costume Designer categories in 2022.