Nearly 12 months after the horrific acid attack on the artistic director of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet, Sergei Filin, a verdict in the case of the Bolshoi dancer accused of masterminding the attack, Pavel Dmitrichenko, will be announced on the 3rd December.

Ballet
The Ballet World Was Rocked By The Malicious Bolshoi Acid Attack.

The 17th January attack on Filin that left him with third-degree burn to his face and neck as well as the loss of sight in one eye is believed to have been motivated by rivalries within the highly regarded ballet company. Ex-convict Yury Zarutsky confessed to the attack in March and claimed that Dmitrichenko, a soloist, had hired him and a driver, Andrei Lipatov, to attack Filin.

Though Dmitrichenko has admitted arranging the attack, he has maintained that he did not instruct Zarutsky to use the car battery acid and rather indicated that he should "beat up" Filin, according to The Guardian. In his own testimony, Mr. Zarutsky, said that he had chosen to use acid on his own initiative.


Prosecutors have demanded that Dmitrichenko should receive nine years of imprisonment for his alleged role in the attack and have also requested a 10-year sentence for Zarutsky and six years Lipatov, according to the AP.

The shocking attack called to attention the fierce rivalries and discontent within the competitive world of ballet dancing as it is believed that Dmitrichenko was angered by the Filin's choice to cast another dancer as the famous Princess Odette/Swan Queen role in Swan Lake, over Dmitrichenko's girlfriend, Anzhelina Vorontsova. The trial has seen a number of top dancers from the company gives testimonies that have revealed Bolshoi's rotten core of infighting and jealousy.

Dmitrichenko's lawyers and his co-defendants read their closing statements in a Moscow court on Friday, before the judge adjourned the trial until Tuesday's verdict. However, the prosecutors have requested a sentence of nine years in a labor camp for Dmitrichenko.

Tuesday 3rd December will bring court's verdict.