Yekaterina Samutsevich, left, a member of feminist punk group, is escorted to a court room in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticized the feminist punk rockers facing trial for performing a “punk prayer” against him at Moscow’s main cathedral, but said that a punishment for them shouldn’t be too severe. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)MOSCOW (AP) – Russian prosecutors on Tuesday asked for a three-year sentence for each member of a feminist punk band who performed a stunt against Vladimir Putin in Moscow’s main cathedral.
The hooliganism charges the three women are facing carry a sentence of up to 7 years in prison. Prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov said in a web-cast court hearing that a 3-year term would take into account the fact that two of the defendants are young mothers.
The three women – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23; Maria Alekhina, 24; and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 – have been in custody for five months following the February stunt, in which they took over a church pulpit in Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute, singing, high-kicking and dancing.
The defendants have said their goal was to express their resentment over Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill’s support for Putin’s rule.
“They set themselves off against the Orthodox world and sought to devalue traditions and dogmas that have been formed for the centuries,” the prosecutor said Tuesday.