Pussy Riot Plea Rejected

Human rights organizations are likely to be up in arms over a Russian court’s refusal to grant early release from prison for Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova because she hasn’t behaved herself.

Amnesty International has already protested the way that Tolokonnikova and bandmate Yekaterina Samutsevich have been treated.

Judge Lidiya Yakovleva on April 26 said evidence showed that Tolokonnikova did not deserve early release because she had “not always followed the rules of behavior” while in custody.

Tolokonnikova, who has been in custody since her arrest last March, is serving a two-year sentence handed down after the band staged an irreverent protest against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.

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

At Tallinn Music Week April 5, Estonia President Toomas Ilves was critical of the way that Russia had “shipped the girls off to the Gulag for playing punk music.”
The girls’ provocative songs and continued imprisonment have made them symbols of the country’s opposition movement.

Irina Khrunova, Tolokonnikova’s attorney, told Interfax news agency that there would be an appeal on the grounds that the judge did not allow final statements by the defence team.

Tolokonnikova and two other band members were sentenced to prison terms on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. She sought early release after serving half her sentence, a provision allowed by law.

Samutsevich had her sentence suspended on appeal last year.

Tolokonnikova told the court that the prison colony where she is serving her sentence did not support her plea of early release because she “didn’t repent.”

Russian law does not make repentance a condition for an early release.

The prison colony’s evidence described Tolokonnikova as “insensitive to ethics and conscience and thinking only about herself.”

The colony also listed a penalty that Tolokonnikova received for failing to say hello to a prison official while she was in the hospital and noted that she was once reprimanded for her refusal to go out for a walk while she was held in a Moscow jail.

Defense lawyers urged the court to release Tolokonnikova so that she can take care of her 5-year-old daughter. Attorney Dmitry Dinze also complained that prison officials seem unable to provide proper conditions to treat her persistent headaches.