In the United States, creating racy, religion-tinged art can help establish an artist’s reputation — just ask Andres Serrano, who parlayed a banal photograph of a plastic crucifix dipped in urine into lasting career and a guest spot on Bravos Work of Art. In Russia, though, a taste-defying exhibition of sacrilegious work stands poised to land its two Russian organizers in prison, with a three-year sentence.

The men, Sakharov Museum director Yury Samodurov and curator Andrei Yerofeyev, were accused of breaking a law against inciting religious hatred when they staged “Forbidden Art,” a show at the human-rights-advocating Moscow institution that included depictions of Jesus Christ as Mickey Mouse and Lenin, according to the Associated Press. A judge is now set to rule on the case following a 14-month trial (hearings were only held once a week) that critics have argued is just the latest in a series of censorship cases pushed through the legal system by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russia’s culture minister has stated his opposition to the charges, saying that Samodurov and Yerofeyev did not break the religious-hatred laws with their exhibition. The museum has been in trouble before: after a similarly provocative 2003 show titled “Caution: Religion!”, Samodurov was fined $3,600. That exhibition was also temporarily shuttered when vigilante altar boys from a nearby church defaced works in the show.

The judge is scheduled to rule on the latest case on July 12.