MOSCOW, August 9 - RAPSI. The Khamovnichesky District Court will broadcast the Pussy Riot punk rock band's sentence in a separate hall for the press, the courts press secretary Darya Lakh told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Thursday.

"To ensure the transparency of the sentences announcement and to make sure that all interested journalists are able to hear the sentence, the court will provide a separate hall to the press where it will be broadcast," she said. "They will be able to listen to the sentence while sitting." The Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) and the court will also broadcast the sentence on their websites.

On February 21, five girls wearing brightly colored masks stormed the altar of downtown Moscows Christ the Savior Cathedral to perform a protest song entitled, "Holy Sh*t."

A video with their performance was posted on the Internet and incited a public uproar.

Group members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich have remained in pretrial detention since their arrest in early March after an incident that some have lauded as a valid exercise of free speech, and others have lambasted as blasphemous.

Investigators have accused the women of disorderly hooliganism. The prosecutor has requested three years in prison for the defendants.