Google – AFP, Maria Antonova (AFP), 23 December 2013
Maria
Alyokhina, jailed member of the all-girl punk band "Pussy Riot", sits
in
a glass-walled cage in a court in Moscow, August 8, 2012 (AFP/File, Natalia
Kolesnikova)
|
Moscow —
Russia on Monday freed one of the jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot whose
almost two-year incarceration for a performance against President Vladimir
Putin prompted global outrage.
The release
of Maria Alyokhina from her prison in the city of Nizhny Novgorod under a
Kremlin-backed amnesty was expected to be followed by that of her bandmate
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from detention in Siberia.
Their
release comes just three days after the shock pardoning and liberation of
anti-Kremlin tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which many saw as a bid by Putin to
improve Russia's image ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics that it is hosting in
Sochi in February.
Showing she
had lost none of her fighting spirit during her incarceration, Alyokhina used
her first interview after her release to slam the amnesty as a mere publicity
stunt, and said that she would have preferred to remain in prison.
"I
don't think it's an amnesty, it's a profanation," she told the Dozhd
television channel, saying it only applied to a tiny minority of convicts.
"I don't think the amnesty is a humanitarian act, I think it's a PR
stunt."
"If I
had a choice to refuse (the amnesty), I would" have done so, she said.
Whisked
away to freedom
Alyohkina's
release was marked by the same kind of security that marked that of
Khodorkovsky, who was not seen until he touched down at a Berlin airport on
Friday afternoon.
After
receiving her documents, she was apparently whisked away from the prison by its
administration without speaking with the media after the highly-anticipated
release, her lawyer said.
"Today
around 9:00 am (0500 GMT) she walked out to freedom," said the spokeswoman
of the prison service in Nizhny Novgorod Yelena Nikishova.
"I
don't know what her further plans are," she told AFP.
Her lawyer
Irina Khrunova said penal colony administration apparently drove the
25-year-old out of the colony to avoid a media frenzy right near prison walls.
Alyokhina
later surfaced in an office of a local human rights NGO Committee Against
Torture and made her first phonecalls.
"Yes,
she is here, she is speaking with rights activists," said the receptionist
at the NGO.
Reporters
waiting for Alyokhina by her colony number two in Nizhny Novgorod did not get a
chance to speak with her right after she was whisked away.
A banner
calls for the release of the jailed
members of the Russian band Pussy Riot
on
September 28, 2013 in Prague, Czech
Republic (AFP/File, Michal Cizek)
|
She added
that Alyokhina's bandmate Tolokonnikova, 24, who is staying at a prison
hospital in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, will also likely be freed Monday.
Rebels with
a cause
The pair
and fellow activist Yekaterina Samutsevich were convicted on charges of
hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after staging a "punk
prayer" in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February 2012.
The
performance came just ahead of Putin's re-election to the Kremlin in polls in
March 2012 and protested the Orthodox Church's support of the Russian strongman
during the campaign.
All were
arrested in early March 2012. Samutsevich was later freed on appeal with a
suspended sentence, but Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were sent to faraway penal
colonies to serve their two-year terms.
Alyokhina
and Tolokonnikova, whose sentences would have run out in early March, were
granted the amnesty last week after parliament approved a Kremlin-backed bill.
"I'm
really happy that she is out, but I don't know why she was freed in such a mysterious
way, maybe it was because there was a crowd of press" Samutsevich told
Dozhd.
Jailed
member of the all-girl punk band
"Pussy Riot," Nadezhda
Tolokonnikova,
stands in court Zubova Polyana, in the
Republic of Mordovia, April 26, 2013
(AFP/File, Maksim Blinov)
|
"Hurray!
Just spoke with Masha (Alyokhina) by phone! She is finally completely
free," tweeted Tolokonnikova's husband Pyotr Verzilov, as he waited for
his wife's release.
Their
jailing turned them from little-known feminist punks who staged a handful of
guerrilla performances in Moscow to the stars of a global cause celebre
symbolising the repression of civil dissent under Putin.
They
received support from luminaries ranging from Madonna to Yoko Ono to Myanmar
democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
The case
also polarised Russian society, with Orthodox conservatives regularly getting
into fights with Pussy Riot supporters during the trial, and even staging
rallies of their own.
The Kremlin
amnesty has affected the young women as they are both mothers of young
children. The measure also specifically listed their charge of hooliganism as a
criteria for release.
Nadezhda
Tolokonnikova speaks to the media upon
her release from prison in Krasnoyarsk. Photograph:
Alexander Roslyakov/AP
|
Related Articles:
Freed Pussy Riot members say prison was time of 'endless humiliations'
Interview: Freed Pussy Rioter Says Outside Support Was A 'Miracle'
Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova freed from Russian prison
Pussy Riot's Alyokhina Says Russian Amnesty 'PR Stunt'
Freed Pussy Riot members say prison was time of 'endless humiliations'
Interview: Freed Pussy Rioter Says Outside Support Was A 'Miracle'
Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova freed from Russian prison
Pussy Riot's Alyokhina Says Russian Amnesty 'PR Stunt'
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.