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Artist News Legal
Pussy Riot three being mistreated, says lawyer
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 2 August 2012
Violetta Volkova, the lawyer acting on behalf of three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot – Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich – has said that the women are being deliberately mistreated during their trial.
As previously reported, they are accused of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred or hostility”, after their ten-strong band performed a “punk prayer” that was critical of president Vladimir Putin on the altar of Moscow’s Russian Orthodox cathedral.
Accusing authorities of waking the women up at 5am and keeping them in a tiny room without food until they are transported to court, Reuters reports that Volkova said: “The trial is being conducted in an outrageous way. The court sessions are lasting eleven hours a day, and our clients are not being allowed to eat or sleep adequately”.
The case is widely seen as an attempt by Putin to silence critical voices against him. If the Pussy Riot members are convicted (as it is expected they will be) they face up to seven years in prison.
