Russia court rejects Pussy Riot member's plea for early prison release

Associated Press (newswire USA)
Friday 26 April 2013

Russian court rejects
early release plea
of imprisoned 
Pussy Riot member

by Romas Dabrukas, The Associated Press

ZUBOVA POLYANA, Russia -- A Russian court on Friday rejected a plea for early release from prison by a member of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, whose provocative songs and prosecution have made them a symbol of the country’s opposition movement.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who has been in custody since her arrest last March, is serving a two-year sentence handed down after the band staged an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.

[foto] A masked demonstrator attends a demonstration in support of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot, whose members face prison for a stunt against President Vladimir Putin, outside Russia's embassy in Berlin. The three female band members have been in jail for more than five months because of an anti-Putin prank in Moscow's main cathedral. A judge is due to rule on their case Friday.

[foto] Feminist punk group Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova stands in a glass cage at a court room in in Moscow, Wednesday Oct. 10, 2012. A Moscow appeals court on Wednesday unexpectedly freed one of the jailed Pussy Riot members, but upheld the two-year prison sentence for the two others jailed for an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin.
She and two other band members were sentenced to prison terms on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. She sought early release after serving half her sentence, a provision allowed by law.

Another of the convicted band members, Yekaterina Samutsevich, had her sentence suspended on appeal last year.

Tolokonnikova, dressed in a Soviet-style dark prison uniform with a white scarf around her neck, told the court that the prison colony where she is serving her sentence did not support her plea of early release because she “didn’t repent.” Russian law does not make repentance a condition for an early release.

In its deposition, the prison colony described Tolokonnikova as “insensitive to ethics and conscience and thinking only about herself.”

The prison colony also listed a penalty that Tolokonnikova received for failing to say hello to a prison official while she was in the hospital and noted that she was once reprimanded for her refusal to go out for a walk while she was held in a Moscow jail.

Defence lawyers urged the court to release Tolokonnikova so that she can take care of her 5-year-old daughter. Attorney Dmitry Dinze also complained that prison officials seem unable to provide proper conditions to treat her persistent headaches.

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