Two members of punk band Pussy Riot lost their appeal Monday to stay in a Moscow pretrial detention center, their lawyer said, and they will serve the remainder of their terms in a remote penal colony, where conditions are much tougher.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina had their two-year sentence imposed over a cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin upheld by Moscow City Court last week. They were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
Both Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina have small children, and lawyers say that a transfer to a colony outside Moscow where the regime is stricter than in detention centers will complicate their contacts with families.
“There are many concerns there — their safety, their health. Barracks for 150 people is not the same thing as a cell for four people,” lawyer Mark Feigin said.
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