Moscow court upholds administrative arrest of Pussy Riot member
The court barred them from visiting official sports events for three years
MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court on Monday upheld the administrative arrest of Veronika Nikulshina, a member of the Pussy Riot punk band who rushed to the football field during the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"The court rules to uphold the decision, the complaint won’t be satisfied," the judge said.
Moscow’s Khamovniki district court earlier sentenced to a 15-day administrative arrest two Pussy Riot members - Olga Pakhtusova and Olga Kuracheva and Voina art group leader Pyotr Verzilov for running onto the pitch during the World Cup final at the Luzhniki Stadium on July 15.
The court barred them from visiting official sports events for three years.
Administrative cases were launched against three girls and one young man on charges of violating spectators’ conduct rules during sports competitions (article 20.31 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses) and illegal wear of official army or police uniform (Article 17.12).
Pussy Riot earlier claimed that the four people breaking onto the field wearing police uniforms during the final match and detained by law enforcers, were the band’s members.
In August 2012, Moscow's Khamovniki District Court found three Pussy Riot members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - guilty of hooliganism based on religious hatred following their controversial performance in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral. Each of them was sentenced to two years in a general correctional facility. On October 10, 2012, the Moscow City Court commuted Samutsevich’s prison term to a suspended sentence. Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released in December 2013 under an amnesty marking the 20th anniversary of Russia's constitution.