RAPID ACTION NETWORK Appeal | November 13, 2013
PEN Canada is deeply concerned for the well-being of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot. On October 22, 2013 Tolokonnikova was removed from a penal colony where she was serving a two-year prison sentence and it is believed that she was en route to — or has already arrived at — another prison. However, her current whereabouts have not been disclosed by the Russian authorities, and neither her husband nor her lawyer has had any contact with her for three weeks. A prison official told Tolokonnikova’s husband that she may have been taken to a prison colony in Siberia, but there has been no official confirmation of this news.
Russia’s refusal to disclose Tolokonnikova’s whereabouts is a direct violation of the UN’s Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners which state that prisoners should be allowed regular communication with family and friends and that family members must be notified when a prisoner is transferred from one prison to another.
Take Action!
· Write to President Vladimir Putin and to the Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov demanding that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s husband and family be informed of her whereabouts; tell them that Russia is violating the UN’s rules on prisoners.
· Tweet President Putin directly, asking him to reveal Tolokonnikova’s location. Use the Twitter hashtag: #WhereIsNadezhdaTolokonnikova?
Background:
On August 17, 2013, Tolokonnikova and two other Pussy Riot band members (Mariya Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich) were convicted on charges of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ following the band’s performance of a ‘punk prayer’ at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow in February 2012. Each woman received a two-year prison sentence (Samutsevich’s sentence was later suspended).
PEN has campaigned for the imprisoned members of Pussy Riot to be released since their arrest in 2012.
· In September 2013, at the 79th PEN World Congress in Reykjavik, we called for their release in our Resolution on the Russian Federation; we also raised their case directly with the Russian ambassador to Iceland.
· We also demanded their release in a letter from PEN’s International president, John Ralston Saul, to President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation on the one-year anniversary of the Pussy Riot convictions.
· Pussy Riot also featured as part of our G20 Russian Action in September 2013.
Addresses:
President Vladimir Putin,
23, Ilyinka Street
Moscow, 1031132
Twitter: @KremlinRussia_E
Alexander Konovalov
Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation
14, Ilyinka Street,
Moscow, 119991
Ambassador to Canada
His Excellency Ambassador Georgiy Mamedov
Embassy of the Russian Federation to Canada
285 Charlotte Street, Ottawa ON, K1N 8L5
Phones: (613) 235-43-41; (613) 236-14-13
Fax: (613) 236-63-42
Twitter: @MFA_Russia
Photo credit: Reuters/Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty
