MOSCOW, April 11 (RIA Novosti) – The defense team of jailed Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has applied for her early release, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reported on Thursday.
“The information about Alyokhina’s request [for early release] came from Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of another convicted member of the punk group, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova,” Ekho Moskvy said, without giving any further details.
Neither the administration of the penal colony where Alyokhina serves her sentence, nor Alyokhina’s lawyers were immediately available for a comment.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova were jailed last August over a “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral that came after the head of the powerful Orthodox Church, Patriach Kirill, publically backed Vladimir Putin’s presidential bid. The third convicted member of the group, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed by an appeals court last October.
On March 20, Moscow’s highest court panel has rejected an appeal by the two women.