Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova denied parole days after fellow member’s appeal denied

GlobalPost
The World

For the second time in three days, a Russian court has decided to keep a member of the punk rock band Pussy Riot behind bars.

The Supreme Court of the Mordovia area denied a parole application by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova on Friday after she asked to be released to care of a five-year-old daughter.

The judge said Tolokonnikova could not be released because she hasn’t accepted blame for staging a protest against President Vladimir Putin last year.

“I will appeal my sentence to the last, including in the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation,” Tolokonnikova said.

“I do not admit guilt and will not plead guilty. I have principles upon which I will stand,” the 23-year-old added.

Tolokonnikova has served about half of her two-year sentence.

More from GlobalPost: Pussy Riot brings best of punk traditions to Russia

On Wednesday, 25-year-old fellow band member Maria Alyokhina lost her parole appeal; she has a five-year-old son.

The second of three convicted members, Alyokhina staged an 11-day hunger strike last month in an effort to put pressure on Russian authorities.

A third member of the band, Ekaterina Samutsevich, who was in prison won her release last year.

The women were convicted of “hooliganism” after staging a “punk rock prayer” inside a Moscow cathedral.

Many Russians view Putin as a quasi-dictator and accuse him of ramming through repressive reforms and fixing the last election.

The two Pussy Riot members are to remain in jail until March 2014.

Their plight has caught the attention of Amnesty International and rock stars like Madonna, U2 and Arcade Fire.

Meanwhile, other masked members of the all-girl punk band released a new video earlier this month condemning corruption in Russia's oil industry.

More from GlobalPost: An in-depth look at Pussy Riot
 

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