Pussy Riot Found Guilty

Three members of Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot were sentenced Aug. 17 to two years in jail after being found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

State prosecutors want the women jailed for three years for their anti-Kremlin protest at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, but – after delaying sentencing – Judge Marina Syrova gave them two years each.

“Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich and Alyokhina committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing obvious disrespect for society,” she explained.

She said their brief protest was based on “motives of religious hatred and enmity.”

The trial has attracted worldwide attention with many human rights organisations claiming that President Vladimir Putin’s tolerance of dissent was on trial.

The band’s supporters burst into chants of “Shame” outside the Moscow courthouse and said the case showed Putin’s refusal to tolerate dissent. The U.S. embassy in Moscow said the sentence appeared to be a disproportionate response to the defendants’s actions.

Though few Russians have much sympathy for the women, Putin’s opponents portray the trial as part of a wider crackdown by the former KGB spy to crush their protest movement.

Foreign stars led by Madonna – who performed in Moscow with “Pussy Riot” painted on her back – have campaigned for the trio’s release, and Washington says the case is politically motivated.

“Our imprisonment is a clear and distinct sign that the whole country’s freedom is being taken away,” Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said in a letter written in jail and posted online before the verdict on Friday.

Police blocked off the street outside the Moscow courthouse with metal barriers, while police buses stood by as a large crowd gathered. Four people were detained when they unfurled a banner reading: “Free Pussy Riot.”

The trial has divided Russia’s mainly Orthodox Christian society, with many backing the authorities’ demands for severe punishment over a protest the prosecution has described as sacrilege, but others asking for clemency for the women.

Putin, who returned to the presidency for a third term in May and a four-year spell as prime minister, has said the women did “nothing good” but should not be judged too harshly.