Putin punk protest trio jailed for six months more in Russia

By Gabriela Baczynska
Published on 21/07/2012 00:00

Three members of a female punk group who ridiculed president Vladimir Putin in a protest in Moscow’s main cathedral had their spell in jail extended by six months yesterday in what their lawyers claimed was a show trial directed by the Kremlin.

The women – whose band goes by the name Pussy Riot – have already been held in pre-trial custody for almost five months.

They face up to seven years in jail on charges of hooliganism for storming the altar in multi-coloured masks to sing a “punk prayer” to the Virgin Mary urging “Throw Putin Out!”

The protest in February offended many believers in the mainly Orthodox Christian country and exposed deep divisions over the church leadership’s backing for Mr Putin and the scale of punishment faced by the women, two of whom have young children.

Defence lawyer Mark Feigin said the court’s acquiescence to a prosecution request to hold Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 19, until 13 January next year showed Russian leaders had ordered their conviction.

“Today’s decision only proves again that our role as defendants here is a pure formality,” Mr Feigin said after the hearing, which was closed to the media.

“There is a lot of evidence that the judge will disregard justice in favour of a pre-set instructions on how to rule, which have been handed down by the authorities. They want to find them guilty… to punish them with real jail time. It is not a process but a judicial reprisal.”

Court spokeswoman Darya Lyakh said a date would be announced on Monday for the start of the high-profile trial, which has drawn comparisons to the jailing of former oil tycoon, billionaire and Putin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.The Pussy Riot hearing yesterday took place in the same Moscow court that housed his trial.

Pussy Riot’s cathedral performance was part of a protest movement against Mr Putin’s 12-year rule that, at its peak, saw 100,000 people take part in winter demonstrations in Moscow.

Outside yesterday’s hearing, Orthodox Church faithful mingled warily with Pussy Riot supporters, some of whom wore T-shirts with the band’s trademark brightly coloured balaclava.

A church activist read out Bible passages, while one of the women’s supporters unfurled a “Throw Putin Out!” banner, prompting chants of “Freedom, Freedom!” before he was ­detained by police.

“Believers’ feelings are not worth a prison sentence,” read another sign held aloft, before rain dispersed the crowd.

The three women’s arrest has drawn widespread condemnation from human rights groups and opposition activists already fuming over the church’s backing of Mr Putin in a presidential election he won in March. Amnesty International has urged Russia to free the trio, criticising the heavy-handedness of the response from the authorities.

But some Orthodox believers have called for tough punishment for an act they regard as blasphemous.

“I was really upset at what happened,” said Vadim Kvyatkovski, a member of an Orthodox Christian youth group. “This was no act of art. If it was happening anywhere else, in the street, we could discuss that, but when it is in a cathedral then it just violates our freedoms.”

Half of Muscovites surveyed this month by the Levada Centre, an independent poll organistation, said they had negative views about the prosecution of Pussy Riot members while 36 per cent said they welcomed their criminal prosecution.