The trial of the members of Pussy Riot in Russia has been reported on recently in Australian news. For those that are unaware of the case, three Russian women Maria Alekhina (24), Nadezhda Tolokonikova (23) and Ekaterina Samucevich (29) formed an anonymous feminist performance art group in October 2011. The group sought to draw attention to "the values and principles of
gender equality, democracy and freedom of expression contained in the
Russian constitution and other international instruments, including the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the CEDAW Convention."
They were arrested and charged with hooliganism - a charge that carries a prison term of 7 years imprisonment - after they performed and filmed a 1 minute piece highlighting the association between President Putin and the leadership of
the Russian Orthodox Church and uploaded it to YouTube. They have now been in jail for 10 months with the matter yet to be heard. There is a website set up to document the trial here.
On the 20th July at Moscow's Khamovinchesky District Court an application for the women's release was rejected and they were ordered to stay in jail pending an appeal. Their lawyer has asked to summon Mr Putin as a witness.
This is a very interesting example of political musicians being persecuted for freedom of speech and well worth reading about. In addition to the website you can also check out a recent article from Freemuse here.
Further Reading
Free Pussy Riot < http://freepussyriot.org/ > at 2 August 2012
Freemuse, Freemuse calls for free and fair trial for Pussy Riot (30 July 2012) < http://www.freemuse.org/sw48226.asp > at 2 August 2012
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