Pussy Riot punk rocker Nadezhda Tolokonnikova will serve out the prison sentence she received for a profanity-laced performance in a Moscow cathedral in the company of an accomplice in a high-profile murder case, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Defense attorney Violetta Volkova told Interfax that Tolokonnikova would be sharing prison chores with Yevgenia Khasis, whom a Moscow court convicted in 2009 as an accomplice in the killings of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Novaya Gazeta reporter Anastasia Baburova.
Khasis, formerly a member of a nationalist organization, was given an 18-year-sentence for her role in the double murder committed by her boyfriend. Moscow's Khamovnichesky District Court sentenced Tolokonnikova to two years' imprisonment for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on Aug. 17.
Tolokonnikova, who arrived at Mordovia's Prison Colony No. 14 last weekend, will be spending time in "brutal" circumstances, her band mates wrote on their official Twitter account.
Ivzestia reported Wednesday that Tolokonnikova will be expected to bake cakes at the prison colony's confectionary factory, while band mate Maria Alyokhina, who is to serve her jail term in the Perm region, will be sewing soldiers' uniforms.
Yekaterina Samutsevich, the third Pussy Riot musician who stood trial over the controversial February performance, was released on appeal on Oct. 10.
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