guardian.co.uk,
Miriam Elder in Moscow, Sunday 30 September 2012
An Orthodox protest agains Pussy Riot: lawyers say they doubt the sentence will be overturned but hope it will be reduced. Photograph: Novoderezhkin Anton/Itar-Tass Photo/Corbis |
A Russian
court is due to hear the appeal of jailed punk band Pussy Riot on Monday
against a two-year sentence for performing an anti-Kremlin song in a Moscow
cathedral.
The case
against Pussy Riot highlighted the crackdown on freedom in Vladimir Putin's Russia
and the rising power of the Russian Orthodox church.
The three
women members of Pussy Riot – Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22,
and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 – are expected to attend the hearing at a Moscow
city court. A decision is likely on Monday.
They were
found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" in
mid-August in a case that drew condemnation from musicians and activists around
the world. Most recently, Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi called for their
release.
The three
women were arrested in February after performing a "punk prayer"
against Vladimir Putin at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
A spokesman
for the Russian Orthodox church said the court should take into account whether
the women had "repented" before issuing its decision.
"The
church sincerely desires remorse for the desecration of a holy place, convinced
that it will benefit their souls," a spokesman, Vladimir Legoida, said.
"And since the point of punishment is correction, if the words of the
tried will show evidence of remorse, and a rethinking of what they did, we
would not want that to be ignored."
During a
speedy trial, the three women apologised for any offence they caused to
believers but said they were committing a political act.
Their
lawyers say they doubt the women's sentence will be struck down, but believe it
could be reduced. "To dream of the sentence being overthrown is too
optimistic for the current Russian reality," Nikolai Polozov, a lawyer for
the women, said. "I very much hope it will be lessened a bit."
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