A judge sentenced three women who staged an
anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox
church to two years in jail on Friday in a trial seen as test of
President Vladimir Putin’s tolerance of dissent.
The
trio from punk bad Pussy Riot, handcuffed in a courtroom cage, reacted
with giggles and one rolled her eyes when the judge issued the sentences
after reading the guilty verdict for almost three hours.
A man in the courtroom shouted “Shame!” and hundreds of protesters outside the Moscow courthouse repeated that chant and whistled when news of the sentence came.
“They are in jail because it is Putin’s personal revenge,” opposition leader Alexei Navalny said in the courtroom. “This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin”.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral. They called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.
The defendants said they were protesting against close ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church and did not intend to offend believers, but the judge rejected those arguments.
Prosecutors had requested three-year sentences. The two-year sentences include the nearly six months served since the defendants were jailed following the February 21 protest.
The
trio from punk bad Pussy Riot, handcuffed in a courtroom cage, reacted
with giggles and one rolled her eyes when the judge issued the sentences
after reading the guilty verdict for almost three hours.A man in the courtroom shouted “Shame!” and hundreds of protesters outside the Moscow courthouse repeated that chant and whistled when news of the sentence came.
“They are in jail because it is Putin’s personal revenge,” opposition leader Alexei Navalny said in the courtroom. “This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin”.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral. They called on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.
The defendants said they were protesting against close ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church and did not intend to offend believers, but the judge rejected those arguments.
Prosecutors had requested three-year sentences. The two-year sentences include the nearly six months served since the defendants were jailed following the February 21 protest.
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