It may have faded from the headlines, but the plight of Pussy Riot’s incarcerated members continues. One of the three currently in custody, Maria Alyokhina, has now vowed to stage a hunger strike after learning she will not be allowed to attend her own parole hearing next week, and must watch on from her prison cell.
Having discovered she will have to view proceedings via video link Alyokhina declared, “Let the troika (group of three) sitting here – the judge, the prosecutor and the colony employee – decide my fate.” Referring to the Soviet-era judicial system that employed a panel of three judges who held the power to decide on the fate of those deemed risks to the parties’ sovereignty without a trial.
After the remarks, Alyokina stated that she will begin a hungry strike in protest.
It seems the 24-year-old has a good idea of how the parole hearing will go, penning a letter to Radio Svoboda where she predicted:
“Soon I’ll appear before the parole commission which, of course, will decide that it’s impossible to let such a dangerous person as myself out into society. This is all boring and predictable.”
Together with bandmates Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich, the three were sentenced to 2-years in jail for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after performing a punk song with anti-Putin sentiment in a Moscow cathedral.
Samutsevich’s sentence has been suspended but Tolokonnikova’s bail was denied last month so it could go either way for Alyokhina.
(Via The Guardian)
