MOSCOW: A Moscow court on Friday ordered the arrest of theatre director Yevgeniya Berkovich on charges of “justifying terrorism” over an award-winning play about Russian women recruited online to marry Islamists in Syria.

The case comes as Moscow has launched an unprecedented crackdown on dissent at home as troops fight in Ukraine and as much of the Russian arts community has fled the country.

The RIA Novosti news agency said the court ordered the 38-year-old to remain in custody until July 4.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were detained a day earlier, a move that shocked Russia’s shrinking theatre community.

The women were accused of “justifying terrorism” in their play, Finist, the Brave Falcon. The women-only performance about Russian women who went to marry men in Syria won two prestigious Golden Mask theatre awards last year.—AFP