A participant holds a placard during a protest calling for
the release of jailed members of the punk group Pussy Riot,
in central Moscow. The placard reads 'Free Pussy Riot'.
REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
Russian police temporarily detained six activists
protesting against the incarceration of punk rockers Pussy Riot
and charged them with breaking rules on demonstrations.
Activists, actors and writers took turns holding posters
demanding freedom for jailed band members Maria Alyokhina,
24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, in order to comply with
rules on one-person demonstrations which do not require
permits.
The Moscow protest was timed to take place on International
Women's Day, a holiday in Russia.
Russian media reported that police stepped in to make arrests
when more than one person at a time held posters in support
of the women, who are serving two-year sentences on charges
of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
Moscow police told Reuters the six people detained at the
protest in front of the Federal Penitentiary Service building
were charged with administrative misdemeanours for breaking
the one-person protest law. They were all were released and
handed orders for court hearings on Monday.
U.S. pop star Madonna and Myanmar democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi are among those who have called for the two jailed
Pussy Riot members to be freed.
They were convicted in August after performing,
balaclava-clad, an anti-Kremlin "prayer" early last year at
Moscow's main Russian Orthodox cathedral.
Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, the third member of the band who
was jailed but released in October, also joined the protest
on Friday, according to the street-art collective Voina
(War).
Russian media reported Tolokonnikova submitted a request for
early release this week. Alyokhina's request has already been
refused.
Asked on Thursday whether the two should be paroled,
President Vladimir Putin declined to comment.
"It's not up to me, but it is a thing of procedures and
applicable legislation," Putin said.
In October, he called the Pussy Riot sentencing fair. "They
wanted this, they got it," he told the NTV television channel
in an interview then.
At another central Moscow protest on Friday, police detained
about 20 people for what they said was unruly behaviour.
No arrests were made at a third demonstration on Friday,
organised by mothers, wives, sisters, and female friends of
opposition members jailed after protests on the eve of
Putin's inauguration in May.
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.