KOMSOMOLSK-ON-AMUR, Russia — Russian prosecutors in Siberia have reportedly appealed the acquittal of LGBTQ activist and artist Yulia Tsvetkova in a controversial case testing the country’s increasingly hostile laws regarding sexual expression.
As XBIZ reported, a court last week acquitted the 29-year-old artist of distributing “pornography” and “LGBT propaganda” after her arrest for posting drawings of female anatomy online. Tsvetkova faced up to six years in prison if convicted.
But according to a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report today, a group of Tsvetkova’s supporters notified the press of the Russian state’s appeal, and the artist’s mother wrote on Facebook that the prosecutors’ move “may prolong her daughter’s ordeal for years.”
“It is horrifying even to imagine how many more years of life and energy this senseless accusation can steal from Yulia,” Tsvetkova’s mother wrote.
The appeal will trigger “a new investigation into the case, as well as another trial, which could take two to three years to complete,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Tsvetkova was originally charged with “producing and distributing pornographic material for administering a social media page called ‘The Vagina Monologues.’”
The “pornographic material” in question was actually “abstract art resembling female genitalia.”
Main image: Some of the art considered criminal “pornography” by Russian prosecutors.