MOSCOW, August 21 - RAPSI. The defense team will appeal the two-year prison sentence for members of punk group Pussy Riot next week, lawyer Nikolai Polozov told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) on Tuesday.

“Today we received the copy of the court judgment, we will study it and appeal the verdict. We definitely won’t be able to complete it this week because of the large volume of the document and the number of violations it contains. We will analyze it in detail and make [an appeal],” he said.

Moscow's Khamovnichesky District Court sentenced Pussy Riot members on August 17.

On February 21, 2012 five girls wearing brightly colored masks stormed the altar of downtown Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral to perform a protest song entitled, “Holy Sh*t.” Shortly thereafter, an edited video of the performance that was uploaded to the Internet incited a major public outcry.