WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/russian-female-punk-band-guilty-of-hooliganism/2012/08/17/464afa38-e870-11e1-9739-eef99c5fb285_video.html

 

RUSSIA - PUNK ROCKER WOMEN SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON FOR PROTEST CONCERT

 

By Kathy Lally & Will Englund - August 17, 2012 - Washington Post

Russian punk rockers on trial: Members of a Russian feminist punk rock band are found guilty of hooliganism for holding a protest against Vladimir Putin inside a cathedral.

MOSCOW — Russian authorities sentenced three feminist punk rockers to two years in prison Friday, showing that protest will be punished even as they avoided the harshest penalty possible. The case against the women — who dashed into Moscow’s main cathedral to sing a song directed against Vladimir Putin — has inflamed the pro-democracy movement here and around the world and put the Kremlin in a dangerous position.

Putin, prime minister when the song was sung in February and now president, has made it clear that dissent here will have its limits. The two-year sentence appeared to be an attempt to reinforce that message without fueling more widespread protest.

Prosecutors had asked for three years — the charge of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred carries a maximum of seven years — but after nearly three hours spent reading a summary of the trial from a red, leather-bound book, the judge said each woman would get two years. The case was so controversial that the judge’s face was not shown on the video feed for those who could not pack into the crowded courtroom. The defense said it would appeal the sentence.

Some activists had been holding out hope that the women would be sentenced to time already served.

The women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, have been in jail since March. They are members of a feminist collective called Pussy Riot and were relatively unknown singers and activists until their protests coincided with a rise in anti-government sentiment over the winter.

Now they have become an international cause, described as prisoners of conscience and caught up in a show trial reminiscent of the days of Stalinist repression. A sentence of time already served would have been seen as a sign of Kremlin tolerance for dissent; a sentence of three years or more would have been interpreted as an indication that now-President Putin wants to put down all challenges to his presidency, no matter the cost.

The judge’s recitation Friday dwelled on what sounded like an offense to the church rather than the state. She quoted at length witnesses who said they were believers deeply offended by the one-minute performance.

One witness said that the young women violated the Cathedral of Christ the Savior dress code with their short dresses and that women were expected to behave modestly in church. Another said public prayers were not permitted in the cathedral without the presence of a priest. If that wasn’t bad enough, one witness said, the performance occurred just before Lent.

While the judge plowed through her 80 pages of text, a crowd of about 1,000 had gathered outside, mostly supporters of the young women who shouted anti-Putin slogans and chants of “Down with a police state.” A string quartet played on the sidewalk.

Many in the crowd shouted “Russia without Putin,” and others called out “Christ is risen.” A few Orthodox believers waved icons. One carried a sign saying, “It’s porno, not art.”

As the court convened, police wearing black berets waded into the crowd, plucking out demonstrators here and there and hauling them off to police vans. Among those arrested was Garry Kasparov, the chess champion and anti-Putin activist.

The trial came as the Russian parliament passed a series of laws in July meant to contain protest by requiring human rights and election-monitoring organizations, among other groups that receive foreign funds, to register as foreign agents. Another law imposes huge fines for slander. Violations of rules governing public gatherings also carry the threat of substantial fines, as well as prohibition from organizing protests.

__________________________________________________________

OSCE - Organization for Security & Co-operation in Europe

OSCE - FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AT STAKE, WARNS OSCE MEDIA FREEDOM REPRESENTATIVE FOLLOWING RUSSIA COURT PUSSY RIOT VERDICT

 Link to Full Text: http://www.osce.org/fom/92939

 

VIENNA, 20 August 2012 – Responding to the verdict against the Russian punk band Pussy Riot today, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović warned of a dangerous tendency towards curbing freedom of expression.

 

___________________________________________________________________