?ourt to hear motion for release by Pussy Riot member May 22

The Berezniki city court in Russia’s Perm Territory will consider on May 22 a motion by one of the jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, requesting a release on parole. “The court will consider the motion at 10:00 Moscow time on May 22. Possibly, something will change, but we will inform about this additionally,” a source in the court told Itar-Tass on Monday. Alyokhina filed the motion in April. Earlier she filed a request to defer her sentence to care for her five-year-old son. However, the city court in the Urals denied her request. On August 17 Moscow’s Khamovniki court sentenced three members of Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - to two years in a prison colony on charges of hooliganism aimed at inciting religious hatred after their punk prayer in Moscow’s Christ Savior Cathedral. On October 10, 2012, the third woman was released on appeal. The sentence for other two members of the band remained unchanged. Alyokhina is serving her sentence in the Perm Territory and Tolokonnikova - in the Republic of Mordovia.