Just announced. While we’re all discussing the merits of another so called human rights campaigner…..
Three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot are in court today to hear the verdict in their trial on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, following the performance of a “punk prayer” against Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral.
Prosecutors have asked for three year jail sentences for Maria
Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, arguing they had insulted all of Russian Orthodoxy and if not jailed would
pose a continuing danger to society. Their defence team has argued
that the women’s performance was an act of opposition against Putin
and that the prosecution was politically motivated.
Defenders outside the court room, including human rights groups,
Madonna and Sir Paul McCartney, have backed the women in the name of freedom of speech and conscience.
In a letter to her supporters on Thursday, Tolokonnikova wrote: ” I
have no private spite. But I have political spite. Our being in jail
is a clear and distinct sign that freedom is being taken away from the
whole country … And this threat of destruction of the liberating,
emancipatory forces of Russia is what makes me angry.”
The women have argued that their February performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour – singing “Virgin Mary, drive Putin away!” – was designed to call attention to the politicisation of the
Orthodox church, which was a key agitator for Putin’s re-election.
Church officials have said their trial was willed by God.