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Pussy Riot Three’s appeal due in court

By | Published on Monday 1 October 2012

Pussy Riot

The three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot jailed for two years in August for performing an anti-government protest song in a Moscow cathedral earlier this year will have their appeals heard this week.

As previously reported, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”, despite artists and free speech groups the world over speaking out in support of the group. Many feel the Moscow courts gave in to pressure from both the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ahead of the appeals hearing, a spokesman for the latter, Vladimir Legoida, told reporters that the church believes that, if the three convicted Pussy Riot members were to show “penitence” for their actions, then judges should bear that in mind when deciding whether to keep the women in jail, adding: “The church sincerely wishes for the repentance of those who desecrated a holy place, certainly it would benefit their souls”.

But legal representatives for the three women said this weekend that if the Russian Orthodox Church was, in essence, demanding the Pussy Riot members admit they were guilty of the crimes they were accused of by Russian prosecutors, then no such “penitence” would be forthcoming.

Some Pussy Riot supporters hope that the comments from the Church (despite them being conditional), coupled with recent remarks by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to the effect that a suspended sentence would be a satisfactory conclusion, might mean that the three women will be freed from jail as a result of their appeal, even if their convictions are not quashed.

But not everyone is so optimistic. The father of Samutsevich said he held little hope in his daughter being freed this week, even if she was willing to “repent”. He told Reuters: “The sentence is predetermined; their repentance will not affect it in any way”.



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