An appeals court in Moscow has confirmed the sentence against German satirist Jacques Tilly, who was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for his carnival floats.
June 9, 2026, 12:48 p.mJune 9, 2026, 12:52 p.m
Ulf Mauder and Frank Christiansen, dpa
In the morning, Judge Vladimir Ussov read out the three-member panel’s decision that the defense’s appeal against the verdict was dismissed and the sentence was confirmed.
Public defender Natalja Dudkina justified the appeal proceedings in court by saying that Tilly’s guilt was not examined by a psychiatric report during the investigation. In her plea at the beginning of April, she requested that Tilly be acquitted due to lack of evidence.
The artist Tilly presented his figures at the Rose Monday parade.Image: keystone
“It was my legal duty as a defense attorney to lodge an appeal against this verdict,” she told the German Press Agency in the courtroom. She complained again that she had not been able to contact Tilly herself. Russia had put him on an international wanted list, she said.
Defense: Case now closed
Now the case is closed unless the sculptor himself contacts us and asks to take the case to the next instance, said Dudkina. The public prosecutor’s office, which had largely prevailed with its demand for punishment, decided not to seek legal recourse.
When asked by the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf, Tilly said:
«The case is now closed. I see no reason to prolong this absurd show trial. The verdict is a farce anyway. It will not affect our satirical work at Carnival. We’ll carry on as before.”
Tilly had repeatedly stated that he himself had never been informed by the Russian judiciary about the investigations against him. Employees at the German Embassy now also observed the appeal process – as well as the entire court case this year.
A court in Moscow ruled in April that Tilly was guilty of hurting religious feelings and spreading false news about the Russian armed forces with his representations in the Düsseldorf Rose Monday procession. Tilly had repeatedly satirically denounced Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and the war he ordered in Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill was also mocked.
Tilly: “I take it calmly”
He had to live with the conviction, and he was doing quite well, Tilly had said before the appeal process began. It’s part of the satirist’s business that you get very harsh reactions from time to time. “That’s priced in. I take it rather calmly – how else am I supposed to take it?”
In addition, there was repeated talk during the trial of insulting Russian President Putin. This accusation was no longer concrete on the day of the verdict in April. The offense under which Tilly was convicted prohibits denigration of the Russian state organs, including the armed forces and Kremlin leader Putin.
The Moscow trial was particularly concerned with one of Tilly’s works. His carnival float from 2024 with figures of Putin in uniform and Patriarch Kirill having homosexual oral sex was described in great detail several times during the trial.
Artist does not have to fear extradition
Following such accusations of alleged denigration of the army, many opponents of the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Putin have already been convicted in Russia. The decisions have been criticized internationally as unfair judgments by the Russian arbitrary justice system.
Tilly does not have to fear extradition from Germany to Russia. However, he can run into problems when traveling to countries that extradite criminals wanted by Moscow to Russia.
The German federal government criticized the judge’s ruling in April as an “absurd spectacle”. “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,” said the German ambassador, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, in Moscow. But Germany is committed to freedom of art.
Putin is always a motive for Tilly
Tilly is known for his bitingly satirical theme floats in Düsseldorf’s Rose Monday parade. His motifs appear regularly on the front pages of the German and international press in the days after Carnival. He has dedicated his theme cars to Putin several times. One work shows the Kremlin chief in a Ukrainian tub – bathing in blood.
This year there was a float with a view of the trial in Moscow – a sculpture of Putin in uniform impales the Düsseldorf carnival figure Hoppeditz with a sword.
On one day of the trial, a prosecutor also presented Tilly’s interview statements from the investigation files regarding his criticism of Putin’s war against Ukraine. There were repeated allegations against the Russian armed forces for the killing of Ukrainian civilians. According to the investigation files, Tilly is accused of hatred of Russians. (hkl/sda/dpa)