Brussels, 21/08/2012 (Agence Europe) - Europeans criticised, on Friday 17 August, the verdict of the Kamovnichesky court in Russia, condemning three of the members of the punk group Pussy Riot to two years of prison camp, deeming the sentence “disproportionate”.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton said she was “deeply disappointed” by the verdict, which she considered “disproportionate”. This condemnation for having expressed their points of view in a way that was “peaceful, if controversial, is deeply troubling”, she said, expecting that the judgment be reviewed in conformity with Russia's international commitments.
Recalling the reports of the three women's mistreatment during their pre-trial detention and the reported irregularities of the trial, Ashton said that the verdict “puts a serious question mark over Russia's respect for international obligations of fair, transparent and independent legal process”. It also runs counter to Russia's international obligations as regards freedom of expression.
The member states have been just as critical. Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised this penalty as “exaggerated”, and “not in harmony with European values on the rule of law and democracy of which Russia has ruled in favour as a member of the Council of Europe”. She said that a dynamic civil society and citizens who are politically engaged “are a necessary condition for the modernisation of Russia and not a threat”. France deemed the sentence “particularly disproportionate”, adding that “the procedure is not over, the ways of recourse in Russia and to Strasbourg have not been exhausted”. For the Austrian secretary of state for foreign affairs, Wolfgang Waldner, the judgment “breaches Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights on the freedom of expression”.
The leader of the S&D Group at the European Parliament, Hannes Swoboda, said that the verdict couldn't be tolerated or accepted. “We must protest against this scandalous verdict which shows the dependence of the judiciary. All the institutions and countries of the EU must take a clear position and condemn this type of 'farcical justice'”, he said, underlining that his group is calling for an urgent debate at the plenary session of the European Parliament in September.
Numerous demonstrations of support for Pussy Riot have been organised throughout Europe.
For Russia, such a verdict is possible within the EU. Faced with the avalanche of reactions, on Monday 20 August the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Sergey Lavrov, called on people not to “draw conclusions too early and fall into hysteria”, saying that it is “inadmissible to interfere in the work of the courts”. In his opinion, a sentence like this is possible in the EU. “In Germany, sacrilege in churches is liable to a prison sentence of up to three years, in France up to two years I believe, in Austria six months and in Finland also two years”, he pointed out (our translation throughout).
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina were sentenced on 17 August to two years of prison camp for “hooliganism” and “incitation of religious hatred” for having sung a punk prayer in a cathedral asking the Virgin Mary “to drive out Putin”. They risked seven years. (CG/transl.fl)