Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova is in Krasnoyarsk penitentiary – watchdog

File Photo of Pussy Riot Members in Courtroom Enclosure, With Man Showing Papers to One While Female Guard Looks On

MOSCOW. Nov 14 (Interfax) – Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the convicted performers of the feminist punk group Pussy Riot, has arrived at a penal colony in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Territory, a spokesman for the local branch of the Federal Penitentiary Institutions Service (FSIN) told Interfax on Thursday.

Her family will be informed of that in due course, he said.

“Tolokonnikova’s case will now be handled by the Krasnoyarsk Territory department of the Federal Penitentiary Institutions Service. Appropriate notification has been forwarded to her relatives in accordance with Article 17 of the Penal Code,” he said.

Tolokonnikova’s family and legal team had known nothing of her whereabouts since October 18.

Russian commissioner for human rights Vladimir Lukin said on November 13, referring to the FSIN, that Tolokonnikova was under quarantine at a correctional facility in the Krasnoyarsk Territory.

“I’ve been told that she is at the medical ward at a penitentiary in the Krasnoyarsk territory. She is under quarantine. As soon as quarantine is over, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s lawyers and relatives will be informed of her whereabouts within the following two or three days,” he said.

Tolokonnikova is one of three female members of Pussy Riot, which is a Russian punk rock band, who were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in August 2012 for a scandalous “punk prayer” at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February that year. Tolokonnikova’s term expires early in March 2014.

On September 23, Tolokonnikova, who was serving her sentence in a penal colony in the Mordovia region, declared a hunger strike after claiming the colony administration was threatening to kill her.

She complained about the supposed threats to the FSIN, the Investigative Committee and Russian human rights commissioner Lukin.

The Investigative Committee said it had launched an inquiry, while the FSIN claimed that Tolokonnikova and her husband were blackmailing a deputy head of the colony with their allegations of threats.

On October 1, Tolokonnikova called off her hunger strike after the FSIN promised to move her to another colony, but, on October 11, Lukin said the FSIN had failed to keep its promise to move Tolokonnikova to another colony and thereby deceived him.

On October 18, Tolokonnikova declared a new hunger strike. Her husband, Pyotr Verzilov, said the reason behind this decision was that she had been returned to the Mordovian colony from a hospital where she had received inpatient treatment.

On October 21, the FSIN said Tolokonnikova had eventually been sent to another colony. It is still unclear where she is.

On October 24, the Investigative Committee officially refused to launch proceedings in connection with the alleged threats.

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