ST PETERSBURG, November 22 (Itar-Tass) — After several preliminary hearings, St Petersburg‘s Moskovsky District Court on Thursday begins the hearing on the merits of the civil suit against US pop star Madonna. The plaintiffs sued her for 333 million rubles as compensation for moral damage from her concert.
In their opinion, during the concert in St Petersburg the pop diva violated the local law on the protection of minors’ rights by publicly supporting Russian sex minorities. Only one of the nine plaintiffs watched Madonna’s performance and heard her directly addressing the audience, while the others saw the recording of her concert in the internet.
There is a possibility that the verdict on the case will be pronounced this Thursday. At the previous court meeting, when the plaintiffs had ultimately formulated their claims, Justice Vitaly Barkovsky suggested that the sides should consider the case on the merit there and then but both the plaintiffs and the respondents declined.
The hearing proceeds without participation of the singer’s defense. The parties acknowledge they are not sure Madonna is aware of the lawsuit at all. The organizers of Madonna’s concert in St Petersburg, Corporation PMI, and the Peterburgsky sports-and-concert complex, where the concert took place, are named as the co-respondents.
The plaintiffs assert that Madonna violated the local law by supporting Russian sex minorities. Administrative responsibility for propaganda of homosexuality and other forms of untraditional love among minors, as well as propaganda of pedophilia, was established in the city from March 2012.