A Leader of the Russian Activist punk band Pussy Riot, Maria Alyokhina, was detained after a protest outside a prison in the Siberian region of Yakutia, she wrote on Twitter on Monday.
Alyokhina was detained on an allegation that she participated in an unsanctioned rally, according to Mediazona, a news outlet co-founded by her.
The outlet also reported that a second band member, Olga Borisova was detained for the same reason.
The band unfurled a banner on a bridge outside the prison in which jailed Ukrainian film-maker Oleg Sentsov is being held, Mediazona reported.
The banner bore the slogan: “Free Sentsov.’’
The film-maker, known for his 2011 motion picture “Gamer,’’ was sentenced to two decades in prison by a Russian court in 2015 on charges that he plotted terrorist attacks in Crimea, a Black Sea region that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 following international outcry.
Pussy Riot made headlines around the world in 2012, when members were arrested on allegations of participating in a protest performance in one of Moscow’s most prestigious cathedrals during which the band denounced Russia’s long-time leader Vladimir Putin.
Alyokhina served a year in prison for committing what the Russian legal system described as an act of hooliganism. (dpa/NAN)
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