MOSCOW, April 10 (Itar-Tass) - The investigator will ask the court on April 16 to extend the arrest of three suspects in the case over the attack on Bolshoi Theatre /GABT/ ballet artistic director Sergei Filin, a police official said.
"The investigators will petition for extending the arrest of Pavel Dmitrichenko, Yuri Zarutsky and driver Andrei Lipatov, suspected of involvement in the attack," deputy head of the Interior Ministry's investigation department for Moscow Andrei Mikhalyov told reporters on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old ballet art director was attacked near his house Troitskaya Street in Moscow late in the evening of January 17. An unidentified man splashed acid in his face and fled the scene. Filin was hospitalized with serious face and eye burns.
Police arrested Bolshoi Theatre leading soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko as suspected mastermind, perpetrator Yuri Zarutsky who has a criminal record on file and driver Andrei Lipatov who had brought Zarutsky to the scene of crime. If convicted, they might face up to 12 years in jail /Article 111, Part 3 of Russia's penal code/.
GABT director general Anatoly Iksanov made it clear that Dmitrichenko would not be fired if the court did not prove his culpability. Bolshoi Theatre employees said in an open letter that Dmitrichenko could not have masterminded the crime.
Moscow criminal police said they were confident that Pavel Dmitrichenko and two other suspects were involved in the attack on Filin.
Filin, who is convalescing abroad, said he was not in conflict with /GABT leading soloist/ Pavel Dmitrichenko and that he felt "no enmity toward him."
Filin officially denied the allegations that he did not plan to return to Russia. His colleagues are expecting him to resume work at the GABT in the summer.