Translated material
Alekhina's defense intends to file a petition for parole in the coming days
Oksana Darova, a lawyer for convicted Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, plans to file a petition for the parole of her client immediately after receiving the necessary documentation on her case from Moscow.
“The petition itself is already ready. But we are waiting for some documents from Moscow in order to go to court with it. I think that within the next 10 days we will do this,” O. Darova told the Interfax-Volga region agency on Thursday.
Earlier it was reported that the Berezniki City Court denied M. Alyokhina, who has a young child, a deferment of serving her sentence. This decision was then upheld by the Perm Regional Court.
On February 21, 2012, several members of the punk group Pussy Riot, covering their faces with balaclavas, staged an anti-Putin “punk prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. The action and the subsequent criminal prosecution of the girls caused a great public outcry, including international.
Three members of the group were detained on charges of hooliganism: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Ekaterina Samutsevich and M. Alyokhina. The girls refused to admit their guilt, saying that it was a political action and they did not want to offend believers.
On August 17, the court sentenced all three members of the group to 2 years in prison in a general regime colony.
The lawyers filed a cassation appeal, pointing out that there was no corpus delicti in the actions of the convicts, there was no motive of hatred and enmity. However, on October 10, the Moscow City Court recognized the verdict against N. Tolokonnikova and M. Alyokhina as legal, changing it only against E. Samutsevich, who was released from custody.
N. Tolokonnikova was transferred to a women's colony in Mordovia. M. Alyokhina was sent to correctional colony No. 28 in the city of Berezniki, Perm Territory.