Pussy Riot members, from left, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alekhina sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Aug. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze) |
MOSCOW: Two
jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot have taken their case to Europe's top
rights court, arguing that their rights to freedom of speech and a fair trial
have been violated, their lawyer said Thursday.
"A
complaint has been sent to the European Court of Human Rights over violations
of the European Convention on Human Rights by the court which delivered the
verdict," defence lawyer Irina Khrunova told AFP.
The
treatment of the young women during the trial amounted to torture, said
Khrunova, who is representing Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina.
"People
whose fate was being decided in court, who had to concentrate their attention
on the proceedings, were kept without access to the bathroom, without water
(and) hot food."
For the
appeal, Khrunova has teamed up with Bulgarian lawyer Yonko Grozev whom she
described as a "major specialist in European law."
Alyokhina,
Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced last August to two
years in prison for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after they
performed an anti-Vladimir Putin "punk prayer" in a Moscow cathedral.
Samutsevich
was released on appeal with a suspended sentence in October because guards
grabbed her before she could take part in the stunt performance.
Last year,
Khrunova also filed a complaint to the same top court on Samutsevich's behalf
over the women's arrest, the lack of a fair trial and inhuman treatment during
the hearings.
Alyokhina
is serving her prison sentence in the Perm region in the Urals, while
Tolokonnikova was sent to the central region of Mordovia, known for its network
of camps dating back to the Soviet era.
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