MOSCOW, November 22 (RAPSI) – Several activists of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot have lodged an application with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) over their arrest and administrative detention for pitch invasion during FIFA World Cup 2018 final match in police uniform, lawyer Alexey Glukhov has told RAPSI.

According to the applicants, it was an art and political move. They insist on violation of Article 10 (Freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

On July 15, on the 52th minute of the match, four people broke through to the football field. Later, Pussy Riot group announced on its Facebook page that its members organized a public action called “Militiaman enters the game”.

Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court found Petr Verzilov, Olga Pakhtusova, Olga Karacheva and Veronika Nikulshina guilty of violating the rules of conduct for audience during official sporting competitions. They were placed in administrative detention for 15 days and prohibited from attending sports events for 3 years.

Moreover, a magistrate judge fined each of them 1,500 rubles ($23) for illegal wearing of official law enforcement uniform.

The feminist punk group Pussy Riot became known in February 2012, when 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 Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to two years 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. In December 2013, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were pardoned under the amnesty dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution.