Writer Vikentyeva, who accused Akunin of plagiarism, called him a literary thief
The Tagansky district court held a regular hearing on the suit of writer from Smolensk region Tatyana Vikentyeva against writer Boris Akunin (real name - Grigory Chkhartinshvili, foreign agent, included in the register of terrorists and extremists) for protection of copyright. The plaintiff told Izvestia on September 23.
"He is a literary thief. He has completely robbed me, he stole my literary work "Cemetery Stories", he stole from me "House of Death" <...> Recycles everything, remakes it, made huge money on it," Vikentyeva shared.
The woman arrived at the court accompanied by the writer Victor Dever, her longtime friend. Boris Akunin's representative, according to the plaintiff, does not appear at court hearings. She also pointed out that Akunin sneered at her.
"He chuckled himself and told me very many times that 'Cemetery Stories' is his most favorite book out of all 999 books he has published," she stressed, adding that the author did not even change the title she gave to her work, which was written back in 1999.
Vikentyeva also said that at the time of the publication of her books, she was 24 years old, while Akunin was 42. She pointed out that she found it strange that he had not previously written a single book, but was solely a translator from Japanese. The author specified that her works were sold to Akunin without her consent by her husband, which even served as a reason for divorce.
At the end of the court hearing, an expert examination on copyright will be appointed. To establish the claims against the writer will be carried out calculation of profit on the outcome of the release of two screen versions, the first counts the release in 69 countries, the second - in 250. Also publishing houses "Zakharov" and "EXMO" published for many years his book "Azazel" (written by analogy with the play "House of Death", from the position of the claimant), as a result of which Akunin got rich.
The next court hearing will take place on November 6.
In December 2023, a criminal case was opened against Akunin. The writer was suspected of public justification of terrorism and dissemination of knowingly false information about the actions of the Russian Armed Forces. In the same month, Vikentyeva, an author from the Smolensk region, filed a plagiarism lawsuit against the writer for 1 million rubles. She also asks the court to ban the distribution of the TV series "Fandorin. Azazel" - a modern interpretation of the story from the novels of Boris Akunin.
In early February 2024, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested him in absentia. The writer was put on an international wanted list. In January, the Ministry of Justice added Akunin to the register of foreign agents.
