Six-Year Jail Term For Dancer In Bolshoi Acid Attack

By Bill Chappell

Published December 3, 2013 at 7:14 AM CST

Pavel Dmitrichenko, a former leading dancer in Russia's Bolshoi ballet, stands inside the defendant's cage in a Moscow court Tuesday. He was sentenced to six years in prison for ordering an acid attack on the Bolshoi's artistic director, Sergei Filin.

A Moscow court on Tuesday sentenced the man who ordered an attack on Bolshoi Theater artistic director Sergei Filin to six years in a penal colony.

Former Bolshoi ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, 29, was one of several people convicted in the attack in which a masked assailant threw acid into Filin's face, nearly blinding him.

Dmitrichenko has acknowledged organizing the Jan. 17 assault, which was the culmination of weeks of harassment, but told authorities that he didn't intend for acid to be used. Dmitrichenko's legal team is planning an appeal.

"Two others were also convicted in the attack," Jessica Golloher reports for NPR's Newscast unit. "The Bolshoi Theater has been mired in controversy for years as dancers have complained of favoritism and claimed of having to pay bribes in order to dance solos."

From The New York Times:

"Yuri Zarutsky, the man that Mr. Dmitrichenko admitted to asking to hit Mr. Filin 'on the nose,' and who prosecutors said was paid to concoct and use a homemade acid against Mr. Filin, was given a 10-year sentence for conspiracy to cause bodily harm. Prosecutors had sought a 12-year term for him."

Another man was convicted of driving the getaway car. He is to serve four years in a penal colony, the court ruled.

Filin, 43, testified during their trial, telling the court, "I will not forgive anybody for what happened."

Parts of his testimony came after extended pauses in which Filin gathered his emotions as he spoke about how the attack had changed his family's life. Eventually, the judge in the case asked him not to continue his testimony.