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Pussy Riot activists' arrest to be appealed with European Court

The girls ignored the rebukes by the church attendants and believers, and fled as guards tried to detain them

MOSCOW, March 28 (Itar-Tass) — The arrest of the suspected activists of the Pussy Riot punk group who staged a prank at a Moscow church will be appealed at the Strasbourg court, a lawyer said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the Moscow City Court upheld the arrest of Yekaterina Samutsevich. Similar rulings were earlier passed on Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Aleyokhina.

"Today, a decision on the third arrest became effective; from this moment, a statement will be submitted to the European court for human rights in Strasbourg to appeal the arrest of all the three young women, requesting a quick review," lawyer Violetta Volkova said.

In the meantime, the defense will proceeded to appeal the ruling on arrest according to the established procedure in Russia.

Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev said a public observer commission had not detected a biased treatment of the Pussy Riot members at the remand prison.

"The Public Chamber members visited the Pussy Riot members and did not find any complaints or biased attitude to them. As for their complaints that they find it bad in prison; it's as bad as for other defendants," Kolokoltsev said.

On February 21, five masked girls in brightly colored clothes appeared in the Christ the Savior Church, ran onto the ambo before the altar and performed an indecent song for several minutes using the amplifiers they had brought along. They also shouted insults against the clergy and believers, as well as against the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill.

The girls ignored the rebukes by the church attendants and believers, and fled as guards tried to detain them. The church prank caused a public outcry.