Jailed tycoon calls Pussy Riot trial ‘medieval’

Published on 07/08/2012 00:00

Russia’s most famous prisoner said yesterday that three women from the Pussy Riot punk band may have gone too far by protesting on a cathedral altar, but likened their trial to a medieval inquisition and said their prison regime may amount to torture.

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was tried in the same Moscow courtroom as the young women, called for ­leniency because of their age and said their treatment brought shame on Russia.

Weighing into a debate surrounding the trial of Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, his intervention may bolster accusations by president Vladimir Putin’s foes that the legal proceedings are politically motivated and part of a wider crackdown on dissent.

“It’s painful to follow events in the court where Masha, Katya and Nadya are being tried,” Khodorkovsky said in a statement on his website.

“The word ‘tried’ can be 
used here only in the sense in which it was used by medieval inquisitors.”

The trio is on trial for storming the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral and singing a profanity-laced “punk prayer” calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Mr Putin.