Court sentences Bolshoi dancer to six years for acid attack

MOSCOW - Reuters

Pavel Dmitrichenko stands inside a barred enclosure at a courtroom in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013. AP photo

A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced Bolshoi dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko to six years in a penal colony for masterminding an acid attack on the troupe's artistic director.

The judge sentenced his accomplices Yury Zarutsky to 10 years for flinging acid in the face of Sergei Filin, and Andrei Lipatov to four years for providing a getaway car.
State prosecutors have asked for a nine-year prison sentence for Dmitrichenko, 29. Judge Yelena Maximova is expected to issue a sentence later on Tuesday.
 
The attack on the night of Jan. 17, which badly damaged Filin's eyesight, revealed bitter rivalries behind the scenes of the Bolshoi Theatre and damaged the reputation of one of Russia's most prominent cultural institutions.
 
Dmitrichenko has acknowledged he wanted Filin roughed up and had given co-defendant Yuri Zarutsky the go-ahead to hit him, but said he had not wanted acid to be used. He pleaded not guilty.
 
Reading out the verdict as the defendants sat in a courtroom cage, the judge said Dmitrichenko had told co-defendant Yuri Zarutsky on the night of the attack that Filin was on his way home from the theatre.
 
Zarutsky, who has admitted guilt, has said that throwing acid in Filin's face was his own idea and he had not told Dmitrichenko of his plan. A third defendant, Andrei Lipatov, was accused of driving Zarutsky to and from the scene of the crime.