Prosecutors seek 3 years' jail for female rockers
Source: Agencies |
August 8, 2012, Wednesday
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Print Edition
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PROSECUTORS yesterday called for three-year sentences for the members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot who performed an anti-Vladimir Putin stunt in Moscow's main cathedral.
Prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov portrayed the request as lenient, saying it takes into account the fact that two of the defendants are young mothers and that they have good references.
The hooliganism charges the three women face can carry a sentence of up to seven years' jail.
The three women - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 - have been in custody for five months following the February stunt, in which they took over a church pulpit in Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute, singing, high-kicking and dancing.
The verdict is expected this week. The defendants have said their goal was to express their resentment over Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin's rule. But prosecutors have insisted throughout the trial that there were no political motives behind the performance.
"They set themselves off against the Orthodox world and sought to devalue traditions and dogmas that have been formed for the centuries," Nikiforov said yesterday.
Members of the band say they did not mean to hurt anyone's religious feelings when they performed the "punk prayer."
Larisa Pavlova, a lawyer for the church employees who were described as the injured party in the case, told the court yesterday she supports the sentencing recommendation. Pavlova said most hooliganism in Russia is committed when people are drunk and they often regret what they have done - but the defendants "thoroughly planned, rehearsed (their performance) and were fully aware of what they were doing."
Mark Feygin, a lawyer for the band, told the court that the charges the women are facing are disproportionate to what they have done. "Many of the things they have done were clumsy and too shocking, but there are no grounds for criminal prosecution here," he said.
Feygin warned that the guilty verdict would "break a bond between the government and people for good."
Prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov portrayed the request as lenient, saying it takes into account the fact that two of the defendants are young mothers and that they have good references.
The hooliganism charges the three women face can carry a sentence of up to seven years' jail.
The three women - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 - have been in custody for five months following the February stunt, in which they took over a church pulpit in Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute, singing, high-kicking and dancing.
The verdict is expected this week. The defendants have said their goal was to express their resentment over Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin's rule. But prosecutors have insisted throughout the trial that there were no political motives behind the performance.
"They set themselves off against the Orthodox world and sought to devalue traditions and dogmas that have been formed for the centuries," Nikiforov said yesterday.
Members of the band say they did not mean to hurt anyone's religious feelings when they performed the "punk prayer."
Larisa Pavlova, a lawyer for the church employees who were described as the injured party in the case, told the court yesterday she supports the sentencing recommendation. Pavlova said most hooliganism in Russia is committed when people are drunk and they often regret what they have done - but the defendants "thoroughly planned, rehearsed (their performance) and were fully aware of what they were doing."
Mark Feygin, a lawyer for the band, told the court that the charges the women are facing are disproportionate to what they have done. "Many of the things they have done were clumsy and too shocking, but there are no grounds for criminal prosecution here," he said.
Feygin warned that the guilty verdict would "break a bond between the government and people for good."
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