Maria Alyokhina
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Released as a result of amnesty in December 2013.
Birthday 6th of June 1988.
Maria Vladimirovna Alyokhina, also known as “Masha”, is a Russian political activist. She is a member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot. On August 17, 2012, she was convicted of “Hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and sentenced to two years imprisonment, together with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. She has been recognized as a political prisoner by the Union of Solidarity with Political Prisoners. Amnesty International named her a prisoner of conscience due to “the severity of the response of the Russian authorities.”
She is a fourth year student at the Institute of Journalism and Creative Writing in Moscow. She is an environmental activist with Greenpeace Russia, and has opposed development projects in the Khimki Forest. She was a volunteer at Children’s Psychiatric Hospital in Moscow. She has a five-year-old son, Philip. She is a vegan and reportedly collapsed from hunger during the trial. She played an active role in the Pussy Riot trial: cross-examining witnesses, and aggressively questioning the charges and proceedings. She said in her closing statement:\
“For me, this trial only has the status of a ‘so-called’ trial. And I am not afraid of you. I am not afraid of lies and fiction, of the thinly disguised fraud in the sentence of this so-called court. Because you can only take away my so-called freedom. And that is the exact kind that exists now in Russia. But nobody can take away my inner freedom.”
Personal blog: http://lirain.livejournal.com
Will be imprisoned until 3rd of May 2014 г.
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