Moscow - A Russian judge found three women from the punk band Pussy Riot guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on Friday for staging an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow's main Russian Orthodox church.
Judge Marina Syrova did not immediately issue a sentence but state prosecutors want there-year jail terms for the three women who stormed the altar of the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February and performed a “punk prayer” asking the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of President Vladimir Putin.
The defendants “committed an act of hooliganism ... based on motives of religious hatred and enmity,” the judge told the Moscow court as the defendants sat in a courtroom cage.
Hundreds of people outside chanted “Freedom!” and “Russia without Putin!”, and police detained several activists including opposition leaders.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, said they were protesting against close ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church and did not intend to offend believers.
Opponents of Putin, who began a six-year presidential term in May, portray the trial as part of a wider crackdown by the former KGB spy to crush their protest movement. - Reuters