MOSCOW, August 2 - RAPSI. The Moscow courthouse hosting the highly anticipated and heavily scrutinized Pussy Riot trial has been evacuated due to its receipt of an anonymous bomb threat during the fourth day of hearings, RAPSI correspondent Anna Shubina reports.
The building in question is the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow.
At 11:33am Moscow time, a lawyer informed the crowd surrounding the courthouse that the evacuation was due to a bomb threat. This statement was confirmed later by the court's press secretary, who added that the building is currently being inspected by police officers and K9 units.
The hooliganism trial of three members of punk rock collective Pussy Riot began Monday. The trial has been closely scrutinized by both Russian and international media outlets. Prior to the start of the trial, group members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich had remained in pretrial detention since their early March arrest for an incident that some have lauded as a valid exercise of free speech, and that others have lambasted as blasphemous.
Group members face up to seven years in prison.
On February 21, five girls wearing brightly colored balaclavas stormed the altar of downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral to perform an anti-Putin protest song entitled, "Holy Sh*t."