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A court rejects a house-arrest transfer request in the ‘Seventh Studio’ art house embezzlement case

Source: Meduza

On Thursday, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court refused to consider transferring Alexey Malobrodsky, the former director of the Gogol Center, to house arrest. Prosecutors asked the court to reject the transfer request by state investigators, dismissing claims by Malobrodksy’s lawyer that his client’s health has deteriorated in pretrial detention. “This attempted murder will come back to haunt you,” Malobrodksy told the prosecutor. The court rejected a similar petition by investigators on April 27.

Malobrodksy was arrested last summer for his suspected involvement in the embezzling of state funding in the “Seventh Studio” case. He is the only suspect still in pretrial detention. The other suspects now under house arrest are stage director Kirill Serebrennikov, Russian Academic Youth Theater director Sofia Apfelbaum, Seventh Studio general director Yuri Itin, and former Seventh Studio head accountant Nina Maslyaeva. Producer Ekaterina Voronova fled Russia and is wanted by police. Maslyaeva is the only suspect who has confessed to the charges.

Also on May 10, the French authorities revealed that Vladimir Putin has rejected their request to facilitate Kirill Serebrennikov’s attendance at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Putin reportedly said he would be happy to help the festival, “but the Russian justice system is independent [from the executive branch].” Serebrennikov’s new film “Leto” (Summer) was screened on May 10 and reportedly got a standing ovation.

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