To the glory box

Artist and singer Yoko Ono awarded the Pussy Riot group the Peace Prize, which she founded in memory of her husband John Lennon, Lenta.RU reports.

Today the award in New York will be received by Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of convicted group member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. Yoko Ono will present the award together with Suzanne Nossel, executive director of the human rights organization Amnesty International in the United States. Let us remember that after the arrest of Pussy Riot, Amnesty International recognized them as prisoners of conscience. According to Ono, she decided to reward the group members for their contribution to the fight for freedom of expression for women.

In addition to Pussy Riot, four other people received the award: Rachel Corrie, an American activist who fought for Palestinian rights in Israel who died in 2003, the late writer Christopher Hitchens, and John Perkins, an activist and author of the book "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man", published in 2004. The name of the fifth laureate is not yet known to the media.

The Lennon-Ono Prize has been awarded every two years since 2002 to activists for human rights and world peace. On October 9 - John Lennon's 72nd birthday - another ceremony will be held in Reykjavik in honor of the award winners.

Yoko Ono, along with other Russian and foreign cultural figures, called on the Russian authorities to release the group members from custody. On August 8, she made this request on Twitter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

On October 1, the Moscow City Court will consider the complaint of members of the Pussy Riot group against the court verdict.