Moscow (AFP) – Detained Russian theatre director Yevgeniya Berkovich and fellow playwright Svetlana Petriychuk appear via video link to attend a court hearing. The pair were arrested in 2023 on charges of “justifying terrorism” after being accused of vindicating terrorism in their award-winning play “Finist, the Bright Falcon” about Russian women who are recruited into the Islamic State (IS) and travel to Syria to marry IS fighters before returning to Russia.