MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI) - The Moscow City Court on Friday postponed the hearing of appeal filed against the sentence for controversial Pussy Riot punk band members, to March 14.

The appeal was greenlit by The Supreme Court., after the band filed an application with the ECHR on June 19, 2012 alleging various violations of the European Convention of Human Rights (Convention). The application concerns articles 10, 5, 3 and 6 of the Convention, alleging that the Russian authorities violated the band’s member rights to free expression, fair trial and humane treatment.

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.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were recently freed after serving nearly 21 months of a two-year sentence for hooliganism. They were jailed for performing the “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Christ the Savior cathedral as part of a political protest in 2012.

The activists were pardoned in December 2013, pursuant to a broad amnesty spearheaded by Russian President Vladimir Putin.