RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Siberian prosecutor not letting go of alleged blasphemy case

PROSECUTOR WILL APPEAL COURT'S DECISION IN "TANNHAUSER" CASE

Interfax-Religiia, 13 March 2015

 

The prosecutor's office will appeal the ruling of the municipal court of the Central district of Novosibirsk terminating the proceedings in the administrative cases regarding the director of the opera "Tannhauser," Timofei Kuliabin, and the director of the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet, Boris Mezdrich.

 

"We will appeal the decision," an assistant prosecutor of the city, Igor Stasiulic, told Interfax.

 

He clarified that the prosecutor's office still has not received the justification part of the rulings. It is expected that this will occur on Friday, and the appellate presentation from the prosecutor's office will be sent to the court on Monday.

 

It was reported previously that the prosecutor's office of Novosibirsk opened a case based on part 2 of article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Violations of Law (intentional public desecration of religious or liturgical literature, objects of religious veneration, signs and emblems of world view symbols and paraphernalia or their damage or destruction) against T. Kuliabin, who directed the opera "Tannhauser" in the Novosibirsk Theatre of Opera and Ballet, as well as against B. Mezdrich.

 

An investigation was conducted on the basis of a declaration from Metropolitan of Novosibirsk and Berdsk Tikhon, who saw in the production the use of an ecclesiastical symbol in a manner for which it was not intended. In particular, representatives of the church were upset by T. Kuliabin's version, where Christ is represented as the star of a pornographic film "Grotto of Love," which Tannhauser makes during the action.

 

A municipal court of the Central district of Novosibirsk on 10 March terminated the administrative cases against T. Kuliabin and B. Mezdrich for lack of the substance of a crime.

 

In particular, the conclusions of religious studies scholars Boris Falikov (RGGU) and Vladimir Vinkoruov, that noted that in the production religious symbols and paraphernalia were presented in an artistic context and thus were not sacred, were attached to the materials of the case. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 March 2015)


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