Supporters of the organizers of the Forbidden Art-2006 exhibition brought with them thousands of cockroaches and released them into the courtroom.
A Moscow district court on Monday passed a guilty verdict to the organizers of the Forbidden Art-2006 exhibition for fueling national and religious hatred.
"The cockroaches scattered throughout the building [of the court]. They were brought as a symbol of protest against the 'cockroach court,'" a bailiff said, adding he was unaware of where the insects went.
The controversial art exhibition came under scrutiny in 2007 when prosecutors launched an inquiry in response to a suit by a Christian organization that accused the show's curators of defacing religious symbols and fueling national hatred.
The allegedly anti-Christian Forbidden Art 2006 display, held at Moscow's Andrei Sakharov Community Center, caused increasingly wide resonance in Russia because artwork that had been barred from Moscow's mainstream museums and galleries were displayed there.
The Sakharov Center found itself at the center of a similar scandal in 2005 when it hosted an equally controversial exhibition, Beware Religion. Samodurov was then convicted of instigating ethnic and religious hate, but only paid a fine.
The exhibition featured pictures portraying Jesus Christ as Mickey Mouse and Communist leader Vladimir Lenin, as well as pornographic scenes painted on the Crucifix and other Christian symbols.
MOSCOW, July 12 (RIA Novosti)
