MOSCOW, November 7 (RAPSI) - The defense of convicted Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has lodged with the Supreme Court a supervisory appeal against her sentence, Vedomosti daily reported Thursday.
According to lawyer Irina Khrunova, the appeal on Tuesday was handed over to Russian Human Rights Commissioner Vladimir Lukin and he agreed to support the application.
In February 2012, five young women wearing brightly colored balaclavas staged a punk rock 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 in Moscow sentenced Tolokonnikova and two other 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.
The sentences of Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were upheld. Alyokhina was transferred last August to serve her prison term to Nizhny Novgorod region. Tolokonnikova remained in Mordovia.
On September 23, Tolokonnikova declared a hunger strike and requested the initiation of a criminal case against the deputy warden, who she alleged threatened her with murder. On October 1, Tolokonnikova called off the strike. She reportedly gave up her nine-day-long fast because of unspecified health problems.
Investigators have dismissed her request to initiate a case against the deputy warden of her Mordovian colony. On October 18, she declared another hunger strike, and after a few days the Federal Service for Execution of Punishment said that Pussy Riot member will be moved to another prison.