Pussy Riot's Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Gets Prison Transfer

posted in: Music News

The husband of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, the Russian punk rock activist jailed for staging a 2012 protest performance in a Moscow church with her band Pussy Riot, reports that his wife has been granted a transfer from her original prison to a new colony. Tolokonnikova, 23, began a hunger strike while in prison this September to bring attention to what she described as brutal conditions and human rights violations. She was hospitalized and then returned to the original prison, in Mordovia, but continued to express fear for her personal safety as a result of officials turning her fellow inmates against her. She reportedly also started a second hunger strike upon her return from the hospital.

Uneasy family members, who had not been informed of the transfer, have been told to expect information regarding her new location within 10 days.