Pussy Riot ‘won’t admit guilt’ to charges of hooliganism over ‘anti-Putin prayer’

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London, Oct 10: Three jailed members of the feminist Russian punk band, Pussy Riot, have said that they will never admit their guilt to charges of hooliganism.

The female punk rockers also sought to distance themselves from anti-church vandalism as they asked a court to overturn their conviction.

Speaking at an appeal hearing in a Moscow court, one of the jailed members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova said “we cannot admit to charges of religious hatred. Please overturn the conviction.”

According to the Telegraph, a Moscow Court resumed hearing the adjourned appeal by the jailed members of the Pussy Riot punk collective today.

The three women, Tolokonnikova, 22, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Maria Alekhina, 24, are seeking to overturn convictions for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred that saw them sentenced to two years imprisonment in August.

In February members of the band jumped on a cathedral’s altar and performed what they called a “punk prayer,” begging for divine intervention to rid Russia of Putin.

According to the paper, Alekhina argued that the act was clearly a political protest against the growing influence of the church in politics, and had nothing to do with “religious hatred.”

“We are not militant Atheists. We are against cutting crosses, we are against stealing icons, we are against pouring ink on icons,” she said.

“Do not confuse us with that which we had nothing to do with, which is despicable on both the part of the legislature and those journalists who do so,” she added. (ANI)