Pussy Riot member ends 11-day hunger strike
Source: The Guardian
Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina, jailed for an anti-Kremlin protest last autumn, has ended an 11-day hunger strike. Alyokhina's representatives claimed she had provoked "unprecedented" concessions by Russian officials, who agreed to relax security procedures at the prison where the 25-year-old is being held.
Alyokhina announced her hunger strike on 22 May, in the middle of a parole hearing in the remote Russian village of Berezniki. Although the musician was being held across the street from the courthouse, she had been forbidden from appearing in person; over a video link she said her "rights were being violated" by prison authorities and ordered her lawyers to boycott the proceedings.
Since then, Alyokhina's complaints have shifted focus from her parole hearing to conditions at the prison colony. According to her lawyer, Irina Khrunova, officials imposed excessive security measures in an attempt to turn the other inmates against her. "All she's asking is to be treated fairly," Khrunova said last week.
Prison wardens have now reportedly eased some of their regulations, prompting Alyokhina to end her fast. "It seems the public reaction (to Maria's strike) was so big that there was a political decision," Pyotr Verzilov, the husband of fellow Pussy Riot convict Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, told Reuters. "They organised an 'excursion' for Maria today, where she was shown that all her demands, like removing metal locks from doors and easing 24-hour surveillance on certain inmates, were met."
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jun/03/pussy-riot-alyokhina-ends-hunger-strike
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