Moscow (AFP) - Russian prosecutors on Monday known as for a six-yr penal complex sentence for acclaimed director Kirill Serebrennikov, accused of embezzling public money in a case that has stirred criticism at home and abroad.
Serebrennikov is charged with growing an organised crook community along with his colleagues and embezzling more than $2 million of state funding for a theatre challenge referred to as Platforma.
He has insisted the funds was used correctly and calls the fees "absurd".
"There is not one piece of facts proving my dishonest behaviour," Serebrennikov said throughout the hearing.
He said the prosecution's case is in accordance with testimony of "accountants and their pals" who have been "under pressure from investigators" and "lied out of worry for themselves".
He known as the accusations of the prosecutors and the lifestyle ministry that he misappropriated the money "laughable".
The prosecution asked the decide to sentence Se rebrennikov to 6 years in reformatory and a excellent of 800,000 rubles ($eleven,536), an AFP reporter in the Moscow courtroom observed.
The 50-year-historical head of Moscow's Gogol Centre theatre -- who supporters say is facing politically prompted prices -- become detained in August 2017.
In April ultimate 12 months, he and his co-defendants Sofia Apfelbaum and Yury Itin were released from condominium arrest in a ruling which allowed the director to leave his apartment in Moscow and talk freely.
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The prosecution on Monday requested reformatory phrases of 4 years and fines of 200,000 rubles each for Apfelbaum and Itin.
It requested five years in penal complex and a 300,000-ruble satisfactory for a fourth defendant, Alexey Malobrodsky.
The courtroom will pronounce its verdict and sentence on Friday.
The embezzlement trial has attracted foreign attention and requires his free up all over from Hollywood to Cannes.
Th is week over three thousand cultural figures in Russia signed an open letter to culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, calling on her to "withdraw the lawsuit" towards Serebrennikov to conclusion the crook case, asserting it is in keeping with wrong calculations.
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In 2012, Serebrennikov became appointed because the director of the small state-funded Gogol Centre, which he turned into one among Moscow's top of the line theatres and a fave of the liberal intelligentsia.
Yet Serebrennikov's work has angered cultural conservatives in Russia who see his regularly occurring use of on-stage nudity and obscene language, as well as up to date adaptations of classics, as a step too some distance.
The director had continued working even throughout his condo arrest, among different productions directing an opera in Germany by means of having his lawyer shuttle a USB keep on with instructions to singers and designers.
He has additionally had a a hit career as a movie director, opting for up awards at overseas festivals, together with Cannes.
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