Pussy Riot protestors arrested in Moscow

12 years ago
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STORY: Security guards scuffled with masked protesters who demonstrated outside Moscow's main cathedral on Wednesday (August 15) in support of three members of the Pussy Riot punk band who are on trial for staging an irreverent protest at the same church.

Witnesses said 18 demonstrators in colourful balaclavas like those worn by the band members mounted the steps of Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral and held up black cards with white letters spelling out the phrase "Blessed are the merciful".

Guards moved swiftly to disperse the demonstrators and treated some of them roughly, as seen on amateur video footage. Reuters television footage shows at least two people being detained.

A Moscow court is to issue a verdict on Friday (August 17) following the trial of the three women who sang a "punk prayer" on the altar of Russia's Christ the Saviour cathedral in February, calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Vladimir Putin, then prime minister.

Prosecutors want the judge to convict Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentence each to three years in prison.

The three women say they were protesting against close ties between the state and the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leader supported Putin during his successful campaign in a presidential election in March.

The defendants have been held in jail since shortly after their performance, which offended many people in mostly Orthodox Christian Russia. Kremlin critics see their trial as part of a crackdown on dissent as Putin starts a new six-year term.

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