pussyriot02112013

Following a recent hunger strike, Nadya Tolokonnikova has now seemingly gone missing after a prison transfer.

Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of two members of the Russian punk protest group currently held in prison by local authorities, has been reported missing by her family after being transferred from a Mordovian prison 10 days ago, according to Buzzfeed.

Her father and husband said she went missing following a seemingly unexplained transfer on October 21 that took her out of the prison colony in Mordovia she was held in. Her recent hunger strike, launched in an attempt to protest the horrendous conditions at the prison and followed by an open letter denouncing the practices of the labor colony, may have been the cause for the transfer.

Tolokonnikova’s husband, Petya Verzilov, told Buzzfeed that he believed the decision had come from authorities in Moscow in an attempt to “cut her off from the outside world.” She was last seen on October 24 as the train that took her from the Mordovia prison stopped in the Ural mountains. Despite promises by prison authorities to inform her family of her whereabouts there is currently no other information.

Both Tolokonnikova and band member Maria Alyokhina are serving a two-year sentence on charges of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” following the group’s protest against Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church. They are due to be released next March.

Earlier last month, the BBC aired a 90-minute documentary on Pussy Riot’s struggle which has won a special jury prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Latest

Latest



		
	
Share Tweet