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Artist News Legal
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova begins hunger strike
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 24 September 2013
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has begun a hunger strike in protest against the conditions at the prison where she is being held.
As previously reported, Tolokonnikova was one of two Pussy Riot members controversially jailed last summer for their involvement in a political protest. Three members of the band were found guilty of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’, despite condemnation of the prosecution by artists and politicians around the world.
Her bandmate Maria Alyokhina, who is being held in a separate jail, also went on hunger strike earlier this year, accusing prison officials of attempting to turn other inmates against her, and of encouraging some of the more dangerous criminals in the prison to threaten her with violence. For making these claims she was placed in solitary confinement. Her hunger strike ended after a week, when she was hospitalised.
In a long open letter, published in English by The Guardian, Tolokonnikova explained her reasons for going on hunger strike, saying: “This is an extreme method, but I am convinced that it is my only way out of my current situation. The penal colony administration refuses to hear me. But I, in turn, refuse to back down from my demands. I will not remain silent, resigned to watch as my fellow prisoners collapse under the strain of slavery-like conditions. I demand that the colony administration respect human rights; I demand that the Mordovia camp function in accordance with the law. I demand that we be treated like human beings, not slaves”.
You can read her letter in full here.
