Court: Russia must pay Pussy Riot compensation for arrest

Russia must pay three members of Pussy Riot €50,000 (A$78,685) over their arrest in 2012, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled.

That year, the agit-punk band performed a ‘Punk Prayer’ protest in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Authorities convicted them of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.”

This was total hypocrisy as the band had always maintained that the protest had nothing to do with religion, but Vladimir Putin’s plans to run for a third term as the country’s president.

The ECHR said that Russia violated several articles in the European Convention on Human Rights during their arrest and subsequent court trial.

These included transporting Nadya Tolokonnikova, Masha Alyokina and Katya Samutsevich in overcrowded conditions to and from court hearings, and subjecting them to publicly humiliate them by surrounding them with armed guards and a police dog in the court “despite no evident security risk.”

The ECHR added that imprisoning the three for “simply having worn brightly coloured clothes, waved their arms and kicked their legs around and used strong language, without analyzing the lyrics of their song or the context of their performance, was exceptionally severe.”

The court also contended they had not received a fair trial.

The musicians received jail sentences of two years.

But Samutsevich’s punishment was later commuted to probation.

Alekhina and Tolokonnikova were released after a year in a general amnesty ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The compensation figure was not as much as Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova wanted when they filed a complaint with the ECHR in July 2014 for alleged torture.

They had demanded €250,000 ($393,471).

Nevertheless, they celebrated via Twitter: “We won the case against our government in the European court of human rights!!”

Responding to the verdict, Russia’s Justice Ministry said that Moscow still has three months before the ruling takes effect, during which time the government can file an appeal.

It is not certain if the band will ever see the money.

Russia has been threatening to leave the human rights convention for some time.

Four other members of Pussy Riot were arrested on the weekend (July 15), after they invaded the pitch during the World Cup final between France and Croatia as part of a list of demands.

They were sentenced to 15 days in prison and banned from sporting events for three years.

In this instance, Pussy Riot released a new music video Track About Good Cop.

Essentially about becoming friends with the police force, it shows cops dancing as the band sing “Me and the cop/We’ve turned from enemies into a duo.”

When announcing Pussy Riot’s compensation, the ECHR had maintained that the Russian government must pay €20,000 ($31,474) to the family of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

She was murdered in October 2006 for her fearless writings about the Russian government.

Five people were convicted in a Moscow court of her death but the ECHR maintained that the investigation by police had been ineffective and slow.