Jailed tycoon weighs in for Pussy Riot

REUTERS

Maria Alyokhina (C), a member of the female punk band "Pussy Riot", is escorted by police before a court hearing in Moscow, August 6, 2012. Three young women from the punk band Pussy Riot could face sentence this week in a trial over their "protest prayer" in a church that has transfixed Russia and opened President Vladimir Putin to new accusations of a crackdown on dissent. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov (RUSSIA - Tags: POLITICS RELIGION CRIME LAW ENTERTAINMENT)

MOSCOW: Russia’s most famous prisoner said yesterday that three women from the Pussy Riot band may have gone too far by protesting on a cathedral altar, but likened their trial to a medieval inquisition and said their prison regime may amount to torture.

Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was tried in the same Moscow courtroom as the young women, called for leniency because of their age and said the way in which they were being treated brought shame on Russia.

Weighing into a debate surrounding the trial of Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, his intervention may bolster accusations by President Vladimir Putin’s foes that the legal proceedings are politically motivated and part of a wider crackdown on dissent.

“It’s painful to follow events in Moscow’s Khamovnichesky Court where Masha, Katya and Nadya are being tried,” Khodorkovsky said in a statement on his website. “The word ‘tried’ can be used here only in the sense in which it was used by medieval inquisitors.”

The trio are on trial for storming the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February and belting out a profanity-laced “punk prayer” calling on the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin. Their stunt infuriated church leaders and the Kremlin.

It also upset many Orthodox Christian believers for whom the cathedral is a sacred place of worship and its pulpit a place reserved exclusively for priests.

But Khodorkovsky – the 49-year-old former head of oil company Yukos who was arrested in 2003 and jailed the following year on fraud and tax evasion charges – pleaded their cause.

“The mistakes of radicalism can be excused by youth,” he said. “I call on all thinking, educated and simply good and kind people to send words of hope to the girls.”

Drawing on his own experiences, Khodorkovsky – who remains unpopular among many Russians who still see him as one of the country’s “robber-barons” – said defendants in such a high-profile case were woken before breakfast and shuttled to court at the crack of dawn.

During an 11-hour day locked in a glass and metal courtroom cage known as “the aquarium”, instant noodles were the only food served, he noted.

“I know what the aquarium in courtroom number seven is. They made it specially for us,” Khodorkovsky said, referring to his own experience during the second of his two trials.

“You feel like a tropical fish,” he said. “It’s hot. The airconditioning doesn’t circulate through the glass.”

After a court session lasting late into the evening, he said the women would arrive back at their cells after dinner and probably only have time to sleep about three hours before being woken for the next day of the trial.

The only time to shower is on Saturday, he added.

“I don’t know how the girls can endure it,” he said. “The judge of course knows about this regime. Is this torture?”

The Pussy Riot trio face up to seven years in jail in a trial that began on July 30 and is moving swiftly towards a conclusion. The defence team have said the verdict could be announced this week. – Reuters