Bolshoi Star Found Guilty of Organizing Acid Attack

MOSCOW, December 3 (RIA Novosti) – A Moscow court on Tuesday found a star ballet dancer at the Bolshoi Theater guilty of organizing an acid attack on his troupe’s artistic director, bringing a highly charged trial to a close.

The judge at Meshchansky Court ruled that Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko and two co-defendants were guilty of causing grievous bodily harm, RIA Novosti’s RAPSI legal news service reported.

A sentence was due to be pronounced later Tuesday.

The attack in January left Sergei Filin with third-degree burns to his face and eyes.

The judge said in the verdict that Dmitrichenko had organized the attack because he was disgruntled at the way Filin was acquitting his duties.

Dmitrichenko has claimed he only wanted to have Filin beaten up, but the judge dismissed the testimony as an attempt to avoid criminal responsibility.

The court ruled that other defendants in the trial – former convict Yuri Zarutsky, who carried out the attack, and driver Andrei Lipatov – only did the jobs that had been assigned to them by Dmitrichenko.

Dmitrichenko and Lipatov pleaded not guilty, while Zarutsky claimed he planned and carried out the attack on his own.