Crime and Punishment

A group of dangerous criminals. Three members of the Pussy Riot punk rock are now under trial in Russia, charged of blasphemy and promotion of popular riots. These three criminals face a possible seven years conviction sentence, if found guilty. In a Country where less than 1% of trials end with a not-guilty declaration.

Crime

Their crime: on February 21, 2012, the Pussy Riot performed a punk rock song in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of Moscow. This group of masked girls walked on the altar, an area in the church reserved only to the male clergy, and sang a satyric version of a religious hymn, making some fun of the Russian President and of the Orthodox Patriarch.

The video

This is the video of the criminal performance of Pussy Riot. A nice interview to the punk group was published by Vice, where they discuss the reasons behind their actions. To read it, the link is here:
http://www.vice.com/read/A-Russian-Pussy-Riot

Punishment

Two weeks later, on March 3, 2012, Maria Alyokhina,  Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevitch were arrested and taken to prison. Where, more than five month later are still held as a preventive measure. According the Orthodox Patriarch, this is the will of god. According to Amnesty International, the three girls are rather prisoners of conscience.

Release Maria, Nadezhda and Ekatarina!

The Incredible Tide joins the international movement asking the release of Maria Alyokhina,  Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Ekaterina Samutsevitch, and expresses its solidarity to these three young and brave women. They have been in prison since March 2012, and this week their preventive imprisonment has been extended until January 2013. Almost one year of prison, without sentence. For the most ominous of the crimes: mocking the power.