Vol. 77/No. 39      November 4, 2013

Along with fellow band members Maria Alyokhina, 25, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 31, Tolokonnikova, 23, was convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after the group performed a brief “punk prayer” Feb. 21, 2012, in Moscow’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Christ to protest political repression and policies of the government of President Vladimir Putin. Samutsevich received a suspended sentence at the appeal hearing, Oct. 10, 2012.

Tolokonnikova began a hunger strike Sept. 23 to protest prison conditions.

“My brigade in the sewing shop works 16 to 17 hours a day, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.,” Tolokonnikova wrote in a Sept. 23 five-page open letter detailing prison conditions. “At best we get four hours of sleep a night. We have a day off once every month and a half.” Those who don’t make production quotas are beaten and humiliated, she said.

On Aug. 30, Tolokonnikova asked the deputy head to grant the prisoners eight hours of sleep. “Over the course of the following weeks, life in my unit and work brigade became impossible.

“I demand that we be treated like human beings,” wrote Tolokonnikova. “I will not remain silent, resigned to watch as my fellow prisoners collapse under the strain of slavery-like conditions.”

After a weeklong hunger strike she was moved to a hospital. Two days later she suspended the strike.

On Oct. 17 she was returned to the colony and the following day announced another hunger strike. The authorities that day agreed to transfer her.

Alyokhina went on an 11-day hunger strike in June, protesting conditions in her colony in Perm. She was subsequently moved to another prison closer to Moscow.

Both Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina have had parole appeals denied. Their prison terms are up in March 2014.
 
 
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