Judge Denies Deferred Sentence for Pussy Riot Member
Asked to push back prison due to young son
Today a Russian court in the Urals Mountains city of Berezniki, near where Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina is serving a two-year prison camp sentence, denied the artist's request that her sentence be deferred until her five-year-old son becomes a teenager, the AP reports. In denying Alekhina's request, Judge Galina Yefremova noted that the court that sentenced her and her two fellow bandmates — one of whom, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was released last October after her sentence was suspended — had already taken her son's existence and age into consideration when giving her a two year sentence.
Alekhina said that to be separated from her son Filipp during these formative years will do irreparable psychological damage. Nevertheless, she adamantly refused to plead guilty to the original charges of hooliganism in hopes of earning a deferral in return. "No one will force me to say I'm guilty," she said, "I have nothing to repent for… I'm in a situation where I have to prove here that my son needs me, which is obvious."
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?