Moscow police say they are certain that a leading dancer at the Bolshoi ballet was involved in an acid attack that nearly blinded its artistic director, despite a written plea from hundreds of theatre performers protesting his innocence.
Some 300 artists at the Bolshoi wrote to Russian president Vladimir Putin and his government requesting the creation of an independent commission to investigate January's attack on Sergei Filin, who had sulphuric acid thrown in his face by a hooded assailant outside his apartment.
Police this month arrested dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko on suspicion of organising the attack, and also arrested the man who allegedly carried it out and his suspected getaway driver.
Dmitrichenko (29) was shown on television confessing to having ordered the attack. In court he said he wanted Mr Filin beaten up because of corruption and other problems at the theatre, but had no idea that the attacker would use acid.
“To everyone who knows Dmitrichenko, the very idea that he could have thought up and ordered this crime – committed in such a brutal manner – is absurd,” the performers wrote in their letter.
“To us, the conclusion drawn by the investigation seems premature, the evidence unconvincing and Pavel’s confession itself, which was later changed, the result of strong pressure.
“We are asking for an honest and unbiased investigation,” they wrote, adding that the case “is not just about two famous artists but about the reputation of one of the best theatres in the world.”
A spokesman for Mr Putin said the president was “following the investigation”.
Maxim Vanichkin, deputy chief of the Moscow police criminal investigation unit, said none of the accused had an alibi and that "we believe those who have been detained . . . were involved in committing this crime."
