Russia: Pussy Riot Members Sentenced to 15 Days in Jail for Disrupting Final

Four members of the Russian political punk group Pussy Riot have been sentenced to 15 days in jail in Russia for disrupting the final of the World Cup, state media reported. Almost simultaneously, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the Russian government must pay €37,000 to three members of the group who had previously been convicted of hooliganism for protesting in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.

The Moscow court found them guilty of disrupting the final by running onto the field during the match. Pussy Riot will also be banned from attending any sporting event in Russia for three years.

>>>Charges Against Pussy Riot Members for Intrusion at the Football Championship Final

Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights ordered the Russian government to pay a total of €37,000 to the other three members of the group who had previously been convicted of hooliganism for protesting in a Moscow cathedral in 2012.

The European Court ruled that the human rights of the Pussy Riot members had been violated, including their right to freedom of expression, and stated that they had been humiliated during the trial, according to a decision published on Tuesday.

During the final match of the World Cup between France and Croatia on Sunday, members of the Pussy Riot group ran onto the Moscow Luzhniki stadium in protest against the Russian imprisonment of Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov.

>>>Great Victory: French on Gold, Croatians on Silver Throne

A Russian court sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in prison based on charges of planning terrorist attacks in Crimea. The thirty-nine-year-old Sentsov was arrested in May 2014 during protests against Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula two months earlier.

“Free all political prisoners. Free Oleg Sentsov,” the group wrote on its Facebook page. A fierce critic of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Sentsov was sentenced to twenty years in prison a year after the annexation, formally charged with participating in a terrorist conspiracy in Crimea.