An appeals court in Moscow has upheld the sentence against satirist Jacques Tilly, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for his carnival floats. Judge Vladimir Ussow read in the morning the decision of the three-judge panel that the defense’s appeal against the verdict had been denied and the sentence affirmed.
Public defender Natalja Dudkina argued in court that during the investigations Tilly’s culpability had not been assessed by a psychiatric examination. In her closing argument earlier in April she had requested acquittal for lack of evidence.
“It was my legal duty as counsel to file an appeal against this verdict,” she told the German press agency in the courtroom. She again complained that she had not managed to contact Tilly himself. Russia had him internationally sought, she said.
Defense: Case now closed
“Now the case is closed, unless the sculptor himself reaches out and asks to take the matter to the next instance,” Dudkina said. The prosecution, which had largely prevailed with its demand for punishment, did not pursue any further appeal.
“Thus the case is closed. I see no reason to prolong this absurd show trial. The verdict is, after all, a farce. It will not affect our satirical work in Carnival. We will carry on as before,” Tilly told the German press agency in Düsseldorf when asked.
Tilly had repeatedly stated that at no time had he been informed by the Russian justice system about the investigations against him. Staff from the German embassy were also monitoring the appeal process—the entire court proceedings this year—as observers.
A Moscow court had ruled in April that Tilly’s depictions in the Düsseldorf Rose Monday parade violated religious sensibilities and spread false information about the Russian armed forces (TheColu.mn reported). Tilly had repeatedly targeted Kremlin head Vladimir Putin and the war he ordered. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill was also ridiculed.
Tilly: “I take it calmly”
With the conviction he must live with it, and he handles it rather well, Tilly had said before the appeal process began. It belongs to a satirist’s business to provoke sharp reactions from time to time. “That’s priced in. I take it rather calmly—how else should I take it?”
Moreover, throughout the trial there was repeated discussion of an insult to the Russian president Putin. This accusation did not become concrete on the day of the April verdict. The offense for which Tilly was convicted prohibits insulting Russian state organs, including not only the armed forces but also Putin himself.
Particularly about one of Tilly’s works the Moscow trial centered. The proceedings described in detail his 2024 carnival float, featuring Putin in uniform and Patriarch Kirill engaging in same-sex oral activity. In 2014, Tilly had attacked Putin’s and Kirill’s homophobia with a float in which the two kissed, a motif he has revisited in various critiques.
Künstler muss keine Auslieferung befürchten
After such accusations of alleged insult to the army, many opponents of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine have been convicted in Russia. The rulings are widely criticized internationally as wrongful judgments by Russia’s arbitrary justice system.
A possible extradition from Germany to Russia is not something Tilly needs to fear. However, travel to countries that Moscow seeks to have extradite criminals to Russia could pose difficulties for him.
The German government criticized the ruling in April as an “absurd performance.” “The conviction of Jacques Tilly shows that the criminalization and persecution of free speech by the Russian government continues—and now also abroad,” said German ambassador Alexander Graf Lambsdorff in Moscow. Germany, however, supports freedom of art.
Putin: A recurring motif in Tilly’s work
Tilly is known for his sharp-edged satirical float designs for the Düsseldorf Rose Monday parade. His motifs routinely appear on the front pages of German and international press in the days following Carnival. He has repeatedly dedicated his motifs to Putin. One of his works depicted the Kremlin leader in uniform and Patriarch Kirill involved in homosexual oral activity. A piece from 2014 had already criticized Putin and Kirill’s homophobia with a float in which the two kissed.
This year there was also a float referencing the Moscow process—a sculpture of Putin in uniform piercing the Düsseldorf carnival figure Hoppeditz with a sword. On one trial day, a prosecutor read from the investigative files, including Tilly’s statements about his critique of Putin’s war against Ukraine. The files repeatedly address accusations against the Russian armed forces for killing Ukrainian civilians. According to the investigative file, Tilly is also accused of harboring hostility toward Russians.
