Pussy Riot member loses appeal

Published on 17/01/2013 01:07

Jailed Pussy Riot punk band member Maria Alyokhina has lost an appeal to a Russian court to be freed from prison and defer her sentence to care for her five-year-old son.

Alyokhina, 24, is serving a two-year sentence for a protest against president Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.

She had asked the court to free her to serve her sentence when her son was older.

“The court has ruled against granting the request,” state-run RIA news agency quoted the judge as saying yesterday. It said the court found that Alyokhina’s family situation had been properly taken into account during her trial last summer.

Alyokhina and two bandmates were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their “punk prayer”.

The United States and Europe have called the two-year sentences excessive.