PERM, Russia — A member of the all-girl punk band Pussy Riot lost her appeal for parole yesterday after nearly a year in prison for performing a protest song against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral.
Maria Alyokhina’s appeal against a previous decision to deny her early release from a two-year jail sentence was rejected by a court in the city of Perm, where she is serving her sentence.
Alyokhina, 25, and two other Pussy Riot members were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred last August for bursting into the Russian Orthodox cathedral and belting out a “punk prayer” asking the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.