Moscow Appeals Court Upholds Eight-and-a-Half-Year Prison Sentence Against Düsseldorf Carnival Artist Jacques Tilly

Tilly, one of the best-known float builders of the Düsseldorf carnival, had been convicted in absentia in April of this year. The prosecution had originally requested nine years in a penal colony and largely succeeded with its demand. After the sentence was confirmed, the prosecution waived further legal remedies.

Role of the Defense

His court-appointed defense attorney, Natalya Dudkina, had requested an acquittal for Tilly for lack of evidence in her closing argument in early April. "It was my legal duty as a defense attorney to file an appeal against this verdict," Dudkina told the dpa news agency in the courtroom. She had also criticized the fact that a psychiatric examination regarding her client's criminal responsibility had been omitted during the investigation.

Dudkina complained that she herself had been unable to establish contact with Tilly. The carnival artist himself also told dpa that he had not been informed by the Moscow court to this day and had also had no contact with the defense. Russia had issued an international arrest warrant for him, Dudkina added. The possibility that Moscow will now place Tilly on the Interpol wanted list is therefore real.

The Carnival Floats as the Trigger

The conviction was based on a Russian criminal offense that prohibits defamation of Russian state bodies. These include, in addition to the armed forces, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin. Tilly was found guilty of having violated religious feelings and spread false information about the Russian armed forces. According to the investigation files, Tilly is also accused, not least, of hatred toward Russians.

At the center of the proceedings was a Tilly carnival float from 2024 that depicted Putin in uniform and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill engaged in homosexual oral sex. The Patriarch had also been mocked in earlier Tilly carnival floats. Another work by the Düsseldorf float builder shows the Kremlin chief in a Ukrainian bathtub, bathing in blood.

During the trial, a prosecutor also read out interview statements by Tilly from the investigation files in which he had criticized Putin's war against Ukraine. Tilly had repeatedly used his floats for the Düsseldorf Rose Monday parade to satirically denounce Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine ordered by him. His motifs regularly appear on the front pages of German and international press in the days after carnival.

This year as well, Tilly took the proceedings as an opportunity for further satire: One float showed a sculpture of Putin in uniform, impaled on a sword by the Düsseldorf carnival figure Hoppeditz. The entire proceedings in Russia were conducted in absentia against him.

Reactions from Germany

The German ambassador in Moscow, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, reacted to the verdict with sharp criticism. "The conviction of Jacques Tilly shows that the criminalization and persecution of free expression by the Russian government continues unabated — but now also increasingly abroad," he declared. Staff from the German Embassy observed the appeal proceedings, as they had accompanied the entire trial this year.

The German government described the conviction as an "absurd spectacle" and criticized it as an expression of ongoing suppression of free expression. The German government had repeatedly and sharply condemned the action against the German carnival artist.

Tilly himself appeared composed after the verdict was confirmed. In response to a dpa inquiry in Düsseldorf, he stated: "Damit ist der Fall abgeschlossen. Ich sehe keinen Anlass, diesen absurden Schauprozess zu verlängern. Das Urteil ist ohnehin eine Farce. Es wird unsere satirische Arbeit im Karneval nicht beeinflussen. Wir machen weiter wie bisher."

Practical Consequences of the Verdict

Tilly also told dpa that he had actually assumed that the matter would have been settled with the verdict. Now he would wait and see what would happen. "Worauf ich keinen Einfluss habe, das interessiert mich nicht besonders. Ich habe keine Handlungsoption," he stated.

The Düsseldorf float builder, whose motifs regularly attract international attention, also emphasized that he was taking the verdict in stride. "Es gehört zum Geschäft des Satirikers, dass man ab und zu auch sehr harte Reaktionen bekomme. Das ist eingepreist. Ich nehm's eher gelassen – wie soll ich's sonst nehmen?," he told dpa.

Dudkina stated that the case was now closed, unless the sculptor himself came forward and applied to bring the case before the next instance. Extradition of Tilly from Germany to Russia is not to be feared, as the Federal Republic does not enforce Russian extradition requests.

Political Context of the Charges

However, Tilly could run into difficulties when traveling to countries that extradite wanted persons to Russia. Since the Russian judiciary cannot enforce the verdict in Germany, the sentence remains without practical consequences for Tilly as long as he does not travel to third countries. The risk of an international search remains.

The charges against Tilly — the alleged defamation of the Russian army and of religious feelings — are criminal offenses that Russian law has increasingly used in recent years against critics of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Numerous opposition members and war opponents have been convicted on this basis.