Pussy Riot member loses clemency bid

Maria Alekhina, one of the three members of the punk band Pussy Riot jailed over a stunt in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral last year, lost an appeal for clemency today.

A Siberian court, near the prison camp where she is held, ruled her two-year sentence should not be commuted or suspended. Her lawyers had asked for it to be suspended until her infant son reaches 14, to enable her to care for him. Another group member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, also remains in prison. The third woman, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released on appeal.

They were jailed for their impromptu performance just before Vladimir Putin won the presidential elections.