- Title: RUSSIA: Pussy Riot lawyer says hunger strike way to show rights violation
- Date: 22nd May 2013
- Summary: BEREZNIKI, RUSSIA (MAY 22, 2013) (REUTERS) PEOPLE TAKING SEATS AFTER JUDGE ENTERS COURTROOM TV MONITOR SHOWING JAILED PUSSY RIOT MEMBER MARIA ALYOKHINA PEOPLE WATCHING MONITOR MARIA ALYOKHINA'S LAWYER IRINA KHRUNOVA READING PROSECUTOR LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) PUSSY RIOT MEMBER MARIA ALYOKHINA, SAYING (VIA VIDEO LINK FROM HER PRISON AS SEEN ON COURTROOM MONITOR): "
- Embargoed: 6th June 2013 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Russian Federation
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVA4VNPEO1B0UROTZKL8T4MP1S66
- Story Text: A member of the Pussy Riot band who was jailed over a protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Russian cathedral said on Wednesday (May 22) she was starting a hunger strike after she was barred from a parole hearing.
Maria Alyokhina, currently in a prison in Berezniki, near Perm in Russia, also told her lawyers to quit the proceedings.
She and bandmate Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are serving two-year prison terms for bursting into Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral in February 2012 and singing a profanity-laced "punk prayer" urging the Virgin Mary: "Throw Putin out!"
Speaking by a video link from prison, Alyokhina told the court considering her request for release on parole that it had violated her rights by not allowing her to take part.
"In protest against the court's refusal to allow me to appear in person to take part in the hearing which violated my legal and constitutional rights I'm going on a hunger strike. From now on I refuse to take part via video link and insist that I should be brought to court. In the current circumstances I forbid all my lawyers and representatives to take part in this court hearing. So I'm giving the prosecution an opportunity to make a pre-determined decision without me taking part, or without my defence taking part. This will be your decision," Alyokhina said.
The judge at the court in Berezniki, the Ural Mountains town more than 1,000 km (620 miles) northeast of Moscow where Alyokhina is serving her prison sentence, adjourned the hearing until Thursday (May 23).
"This is how Masha (Alyokhina) reacted to the judge's decision. This is her step - she made the decision that only in this way, with the attention of a hunger strike, could she show how the rights of defendants are violated," Alyokhina's lawyer Irina Khrunova said.
"In agreement with the law regarding lawyers' actions, a lawyer does not have the authority to agree or disagree. A lawyer can clarify all the legal consequences, but only the defendants themselves can make the decision. In particular I can say, if we are talking just about (Maria) Alyokhina, this is a defendant who possesses not only a brain, but also logic and attention to the situation, erudition, and all positive character qualities, so she made this decision soundly, independently, and after consideration," Khrunova added.
Alyokhina, 24, and two bandmates, including Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred last August after a trial seen by Putin's opponents as part of a clampdown on dissent during a third term in power he began in May 2012.
Alyokhina's mother, in Berezniki to attend the proceedings, said she respected her daughter's decision.
"Well, as I've said already, I respect that decision. It's the decision of an independent adult, who, as I think didn't make this decision out of the blue, but soundly. I respect this. But the judge's decision - I don't understand this. First of all, why this (Alyokhina being present in the court) is not allowed, and why, in general, they can't respect the request of a prisoner in such a principal issue," Natalia Bakhenova said.
"To be honest, I don't expect anything good from the judge, taking into account the experience of the decision of the former judge with (fellow imprisoned Pussy Riot member Nadezhda) Tolokonnikova. It will be hard," Bakhenova added.
Western governments and many entertainers, including Madonna, said the sentence was disproportionate but Putin, a former KGB spy who has cultivated close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, said the state needed to protect the faithful.
One of the three women jailed, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed last October when a judge suspended her sentence on appeal after she argued she had been prevented from taking part in the protest because a guard seized her.
Tolokonnikova, 23, was denied parole last month and both she and Alyokhina have had requests for their sentences deferred until their young children are older rejected by courts. They are due for release next March. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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