Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, currently imprisoned for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” has been hospitalized following the hunger strike she began after being denied an appearance at her parole hearing.
Alyokhina and fellow Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were arrested last March after staging a performance in Moscow to protest Russian President Vladimir Putin. Two other band members escaped arrest by fleeing the country, and Samutsevich was freed on probation in October 2012.
Rolling Stone has revealed things got increasingly worse for Alyokhina as she remained behind bars, however. In letters she wrote to her lawyers, Alyokhina claims prison officials were working to make it easier for other inmates to intimidate her. She also brought her five-month solitary confinement to light, as well as the fact false psychiatric reports had been prepared about her, by Russian officials.
Following the initiation of her hunger strike, the courts denied Alyokhina her parole, stating she had not yet repented for her crimes. Currently the punk rocker remains in a hospital unit inside the prison colony she has been confined to.
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