MOSCOW, December 13 (RAPSI) - The defense of the leading Bolshoi Ballet soloist Pavel Dmitrichenko, convicted for masterminding an attack on the ballet's artistic director Sergei Filin, has asked a court to overturn his sentence, lawyer Sergei Kadyrov told RAPSI on Friday.

“I have appealed the sentence. I have asked to revoke it and define Dmitrichenko's acts as battery”, Kadyrov said.

Sergei Filin sustained third-degree burns to his face and eyes in the attack in January.

Dmitrichenko was sentenced by the Meschansky District Court of Moscow on December 3 to 6 years in prison. The court ruled that other defendants in the trial – former convict Yuri Zarutsky, who carried out the attack, and driver Andrei Lipatov – only did the jobs that had been assigned to them by Dmitrichenko.

Zarutsky received a 10 year sentence, while Lipatov was sentenced to four years in jail.

Dmitrichenko and Lipatov had pleaded not guilty, while Zarutsky claimed he planned and carried out the attack on his own.

The court also ordered the defendants to pay Filin 3.5 million rubles ($105,000) in compensation for medical costs and moral damage.

Filin returned to Moscow last September after six months of treatment in a German hospital. He has undergone more than 20 eye surgeries, and German doctors said that his eyesight had improved significantly.