Russia jails punk protesters

A Moscow court yesterday handed two-year jail terms to three feminist punk rockers who infuriated the Kremlin and drew world attention by ridiculing President Vladimir Putin in Russia's main church.
Judge Marina Syrova read her sentence after finding Pussy Riot band members Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for their February 21 performance.
She then assigned each of the three women two years of corrective labour in a general penal colony, the harshest conditions possible for first-time female offenders.
The prosecution had sought a three-year sentence.
Earlier, backed by celebrities and human rights groups, activists across Europe demonstrated their support Friday for three women from a Russian punk band who were jailed in Moscow for an anti-government protest.
Rallies for the Pussy Riot band took place in London, Kiev, Sofia, Barcelona, Brussels and Paris before a Moscow court convicted the three of hooliganism and sentenced them to two years in prison.
Putin had said at the start of the month that he strongly disapproved of the women's actions while suggesting they should not receive the full seven-year sentence possible.
"I do not think that they should be judged too severely," he said while on a visit to London.