The court refused to arrest Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in absentia in the case of insulting the feelings of believers

The Investigative Committee asked to arrest Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova in absentia, as follows from the card on the website of the Moscow courts. Mediazona drew attention to this information.

The petition was considered by the Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow. As Mediazona learned, the court ultimately refused to arrest Tolokonnikova.

In March, it became known that a criminal case was opened against a member of Pussy Riot for insulting the feelings of believers (Part 1 of Article 148 of the Criminal Code) and was put on the wanted list. The reason for this was Tolokonnikova’s publications on social networks. Which ones exactly are unknown.

In August 2012, Tolokonnikova and two other Pussy Riot members, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich, were sentenced to two years in prison in the case of a “punk prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. They served 1 year and 10 months and were released in December 2013 under an amnesty.

While serving her sentence, Tolokonnikova wrote about massive overtime in Mordovian penal colony No. 14. As a result, the head of the colony was given a suspended sentence for forcing prisoners to work overtime at night in a garment factory.

Updated at 6:26 p.m. Added information about the court's refusal to arrest Tolokonnikova.