Bolshoi dancer found guilty

Dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko (pictured above) and two co-defendants were found guilty on Tuesday in connection with an acid attack on Bolshoi Ballet Artistic Director Sergei Filin earlier this year.

Dmitrichenko was sentenced to six years in a penal colony. The suspected attacker Yuri Zarutsky was handed ten years in a special penal colony for repeat offenders and their driver Andrei Lipatov was sentenced to a four-year jail term in a strict regime colony.

On January 17, a masked attacker threw sulphuric acid at Filin's face outside his apartment in Moscow. The attack left him fighting for his eyesight and facing disfigurement.

Filin was a star dancer before becoming the ballet troupe's artistic director in 2011. Prior to the attack, Filin had reported a campaign of harassment that included having his email hacked and his car tires slashed.

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.

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

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.

hc/pfd (Reuters, AFP)