Pussy Riot members transferred to prison colonies

Published Oct. 22, 2012 at 2:02 pm

Feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Maria Alekhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, center, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Wednesday. Oct. 10, 2012. Moscow appeals court freed Yekaterina Samutsevich of jailed band Pussy Riot but upheld a prison sentence for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina. The judge ruled that Yekaterina Samutsevich's sentence should be suspended because she was thrown out of the cathedral by guards before she could take part in the performance.

Photo by AP

MOSCOW — A lawyer for the two jailed Pussy Riot band members says they have been transferred to prison colonies hundreds of miles from Moscow to serve their sentence.

Mark Feygin said Monday that Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were transferred during the weekend from Moscow
prison, where they were kept since March. Feygin said prison
authorities informed him that Alekhina had been sent to the Perm region
in the Urals and Tolokonnikova to the central province of Mordovia. He
could not confirm the information with his clients.

Alekhina,
Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, were convicted of hooliganism
motivated by religious hatred in August for performing a protest prayer
against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral in February, and given two-year sentences. Samutsevich was released on appeal earlier this month.