NIZHNY NOVGOROD, April 5 - RAPSI. The hearing of Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's parole appeal has been scheduled for April 26, a Mordovian court reported on Friday.

Lawyer Irina Khrunova filed the appeal on behalf of her client, who is serving her sentence in Women's Penal Colony No. 14.

In late February 2012, five young women wearing brightly colored balaclavas staged a "punk-style" prayer in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. An edited video of their performance was posted on the Internet and caused a public outcry.

In August 2012, the Khamovnichesky District Court sentenced Tolokonnikova and fellow Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich to two years in a prison settlement for hooliganism.

In October 2012, the Moscow City Court changed Samutsevich's verdict to a suspended sentence and released her immediately based on her new attorneys' argument that she had been seized by security guards prior to reaching the altar and therefore did not actually take part in the punk prayer performance.

Alyokhina's and Tolokonnikova's sentences were upheld.