Pussy Riot members sent to remote Russian prison camps
The two remaining convicted women of Pussy Riot have been separated and taken to 'cruelest camps'
The two remaining convicted women of Pussy Riot have been separated and taken to 'cruelest camps'
Supporters and defence lawyers of the remaining two members of Pussy Riot have confirmed that the women have been sent to prison camps far from their homes.
Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, have been jailed for two years each after staging an anti-Kremlim performance inside Moscow’s main cathedral in February.
This follows the previous update in which fellow member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed with a suspended jail sentence on the 10 October.
They have been convicted of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’, and have argued that their ‘punk anthem’ exemplifies the crackdown on free speech in Russia.
Pussy Riot took to their Twitter account on Monday, saying: ‘At the weekend, Nadya [Tolokonnikova] was sent on a special flight to Mordovia, while Masha [Alyokhina] was sent to the Perm region. Those are the cruelest camps of any that could have been chosen.’
The two members had petitioned for their sentences to be deferred or served in Moscow, where they could be close to their children – Alyokhina has a five-year-old son and Tolokonnikova has a four-year-old daughter – but their plea was rejected.
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