Facebook has mobilized for a Ukrainian
theatre and opera director held in Naples after a 10-year
sentence for embezzlement from a Moscow court.
Eugene Lavrenchuk, former director of the Moscow Polish Theatre,
the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater, and the Ukraine's first
cinema and theatre school, has been in jail in the southern
Italian port city since December 17, after the Moscow court
verdict was issued in July 2020.
More than 1,200 artists and intellectuals, Ukrainian and other,
have written messages on the Facebook group "Free Eugene
Lavrenchuk".
They all called for the ex head of the Moscow Polish Theatre to
be released from custody.
One message noted that he had been accused of spreading gay
propaganda, a crime in Russia.
Moscow's Tagan Court sentenced him to 10 years in July 2020 for
an alleged fraud committed eight years previously.
Many of the Facebook messages urged Italian judicial authorities
to work against Moscow's extradition request.
Lavrenchuk said from his cell in Poggioreale Prison that ha was
the victim of persecution by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He was arrested on a Russian warrant in Naples when his flight
from Tel Aviv to Kiev stopped off in the southern Italian city
and was delayed, forcing him to stay the night in a B&B.
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