Hunger strike for Pussy Rioter in parole row

A MEMBER of the band Pussy Riot who was jailed over a protest against president Vladimir Putin in a Russian cathedral said yesterday she was starting a hunger strike after she was barred from a parole hearing.

Maria Alyokhina also banned her lawyers from the hearing. Picture: Reuters

Maria Alyokhina also told her lawyers to quit the proceedings.

She and bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are serving two-year terms for bursting into Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox cathedral in February 2012 and singing a profanity-laced “punk prayer” urging the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out!”

Speaking by a video link from prison, Alyokhina told the court considering her request for ­release on parole that it had ­violated her rights by not allowing her to take part.

“In protest against the court’s refusal to allow me to appear in person to take part in the hearing, I’m going on a hunger strike,” Alyokhina said.

“In the current circumstances I forbid all my lawyers and representatives to take part in this court hearing.”