Pussy Riot: Jailed Band Member In Hospital

One of the jailed members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot has been taken to a prison hospital.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, is serving a two-year sentence for her part in the feminist punk group's anti-Putin protest at a Moscow cathedral last year.

Her husband, Pyotr Verzilov, told Sky News she was suffering from headaches and was undergoing tests to determine whether existing medical conditions were being exacerbated by the work she is required to do in prison.

"The medical centre is checking whether the previous sicknesses and diagnoses that Nadezhda has pose some sort of danger to her health while she lives through the daily life of the prison regime," he explained.

"Everything is based around eight-hour working shifts and it's not clear whether, for example, her headaches that she has are influenced by these long shifts."

Mr Verzilov said she was required to sew police, military and various other types of special forces clothes, but that she was determined to keep her spirits up.

"She is a brave girl and gets her spirits together and she is in quite a good mood," he said.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Prison Service confirmed that Mrs Tolokonnikova had been moved to a prison hospital in the Mordovia province of western Russia, where she is being held at Corrective Colony No 14.

In an interview published in the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper last week, Mrs Tolokonnikova described her daily prison life.

She said her fingers had been punctured by the sewing machine needle but now she has picked up speed and can meet her daily quota of lining for 320 jackets. Like other prisoners, she bathes once a week and uses cold water to wash the rest of the week.

Mrs Tolokonnikova said she meditates to prevent her spirit from being dulled by the monotonous labour, adding that the main thing she misses at her prison colony is the ability to read freely.

Pussy Riot staged its punk prayer protest at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral on February 21, 2012, appealing to the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out”.

Three of its members were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sent to prison, although one, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was later freed on appeal.

She told Russian cable channel Rain TV that Mrs Tolokonnikova had been suffering headaches for months and was exhausted after working around the clock, although her husband denied that she had been overworking.