Two members from the female Russian punk band Pussy Riot remain exiled in a Russian prison, jailed on charges of hooliganism for calling upon the Virgin Mary in a public forum at Moscow's main cathedral to protect Russia against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Sept. 23, one of the imprisoned ladies, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, went on a hunger strike, citing intolerable conditions in her penal colony, including “slavelike labor, threats to her life and prison officials who enforce their demands by enlisting inmates to beat each other up,” according to an open letter she wrote which was posted on The Guardian.
Tolokonnikova, currently working on her two year prison sentence at Russia’s Penal Colony No. 14 in Mordovia, wrote in her open letter:
“My brigade in the sewing department works 16 to 17 hours a day, from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.”
“At best, we get four hours of sleep a night. We have a day off once every month and a half.”
“A threatening, anxious atmosphere pervades the work zone.”
“Eternally sleep-deprived, overwhelmed by the endless race to fulfill inhumanly large quotas, prisoners are always on the verge of breaking down, screaming at each other, fighting over the smallest things.”
“Just recently, a young woman got stabbed in the head with a pair of scissors because she didn’t turn in a pair of pants on time. Another tried to cut her own stomach open with a hacksaw. They stopped her.”
The Washington Post quoted Pavel Chikov, head of the Agora human rights organization, as saying that the women’s penal colonies of Mordovia where Tolokonnikova is imprisoned, are among Russia’s worst, where about 2,500 female prisoners live “in large, army-style barracks filled with bunk beds.”
“Mordovia colonies are different than all the others,” he said. “It comes from the time of the gulag.”
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova still has about one year left on her prison sentence.
Also see:
- Pussy Riot releases new music video one year after being sent to Russian prison (Video)
- Paul McCartney sends letter to Russian judge to free Pussy Riot (Video)
- Imprisoned Pussy Riot band member now hospitalized
- Pussy Riot band member goes into solitary confinement at Russian prison camp (Video)
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