Three protesters in Germany face criminal charges for a performance at a church in support of the Pussy Riot punk rockers sentenced in Russia to two years in prison, German police said Monday.
Meanwhile, Moscow investigators are continuing to search for two other unidentified participants in Pussy Riot's February performance at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, a police source told Interfax on Monday.
On Friday, Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24 and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were given two-year prison sentences for their participation in that "punk prayer," in which they denounced Patriarch Kirill for calling on his parish to vote for Vladimir Putin in the March presidential vote. Three other activists are suspected of having been in the church at the time of the performance.
Two videos posted Sunday on YouTube show at least five people wearing balaclavas jumping and shouting during a mass in the main cathedral of the city of Cologne.
In the videos, the protesters are immediately apprehended by church security guards and priests, who force them out of the cathedral while the activists throw out leaflets that reference the website Freepussyriot.org. The mass was not halted as a result of the demonstration.
Three protesters two men aged 23 and 35, both German citizens, and a woman aged 21, an Austrian citizen face criminal charges for the performance that took place Sunday morning, police spokesman Christoph Gilles told The Moscow Times on Monday. He did not reveal their names or mention the other protesters.
Under German law, disrupting religious services can be punished by up to three years in prison. The participants will undergo further police questioning before prosecutors decide whether to press charges, Gilles said....
Keywords: Russia, Religion - Russia, Europe - Russian News - Russia - Johnson's Russia List
Three protesters in Germany face criminal charges for a performance at a church in support of the Pussy Riot punk rockers sentenced in Russia to two years in prison, German police said Monday.
Meanwhile, Moscow investigators are continuing to search for two other unidentified participants in Pussy Riot's February performance at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, a police source told Interfax on Monday.
On Friday, Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24 and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were given two-year prison sentences for their participation in that "punk prayer," in which they denounced Patriarch Kirill for calling on his parish to vote for Vladimir Putin in the March presidential vote. Three other activists are suspected of having been in the church at the time of the performance.
Two videos posted Sunday on YouTube show at least five people wearing balaclavas jumping and shouting during a mass in the main cathedral of the city of Cologne.
In the videos, the protesters are immediately apprehended by church security guards and priests, who force them out of the cathedral while the activists throw out leaflets that reference the website Freepussyriot.org. The mass was not halted as a result of the demonstration.
Three protesters two men aged 23 and 35, both German citizens, and a woman aged 21, an Austrian citizen face criminal charges for the performance that took place Sunday morning, police spokesman Christoph Gilles told The Moscow Times on Monday. He did not reveal their names or mention the other protesters.
Under German law, disrupting religious services can be punished by up to three years in prison. The participants will undergo further police questioning before prosecutors decide whether to press charges, Gilles said....