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Bolshoi attack suspects named

March 6, 2013

Moscow police have accused a Bolshoi Theater dancer of instigating the acid attack on the ballet’s artistic director in January. Police say two other detainees carried out the attack.

https://p.dw.com/p/17r8T
Bolshoi Theatre ballet dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko performs during the media preview of "Ivan The Terrible" ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, in this picture taken November 4, 2012. Russian police searched the home of one of the Bolshoi Ballet's top dancers on Tuesday over an acid attack that nearly blinded the troupe's artistic director, and detained a man suspected of carrying it out. Police said the Moscow home of Dmitrichenko, a Bolshoi soloist who has been performing the lead role in Sergei Prokofiev's Ivan The Terrible, had been searched but did not say whether the search indicated he was being treated as a suspect. Picture taken November 4, 2012. REUTERS/Anton Tarasov (RUSSIA - Tags: ENTERTAINMENT CRIME LAW SOCIETY)
Image: Reuters

Moscow police on Wednesday named a leading solo dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko as their main suspect, saying he had confessed to plotting the attack.

Sulfuric acid was thrown into the face of Artistic Director Sergei Filin. The attack left him fighting for his eyesight and facing disfigurement. He is now in Germany receiving rehabilitation treatment.

Police, who made arrests on Tuesday, said another man had confessed to throwing the acid and a third had acted as getaway driver. Filin, a 42-year-old former dancer, was attacked as he returned home late on the night of January 17.

The way in which the confessions were obtained was not stated in a statement released on Wednesday by police.

"At the current time all three have signed confessions and have been placed under arrest," police said. "The necessary investigative work is being undertaken to establish all the circumstances of the crime."

Russian media coverage of January's attack exposed bitter infighting and long-held grudges between the Bolshoi's managers and dancers, including rows over the allocation of roles.

Dmitrichenko had danced several major parts in recent years, including the title role in "Ivan the Terrible," the Soviet-era ballet by Yuri Grigorovich to music by Prokofiev.

mkg/ipj (AFP, Reuters, AP)