Judge finds Bolshoi dancer guilty in acid attack against the theatre’s artistic director

MOSCOW – A judge has found a Bolshoi dancer and two other men guilty of an acid attack on the ballet’s director.

The judge on Tuesday pronounced Bolshoi soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko guilty in the Jan. 17 attack on Sergei Filin. She said that Dmitrichenko and two other men had made plans to hurt Filin.

The judge didn’t spell out the role of each of man in the opening pages of the verdict.

The prosecutors asked for a nine-year sentence for Dmitrichenko, 10 years for ex-convict Yuri Zarutsky, suspected of carrying out the attack, and six years for their driver, Andrei Lipatov.

The attack on Filin highlighted vicious backstage bickering and intrigue at the renowned theatre. Filin lost most of the sight in one eye and 20 per cent in the other.