Jailed Pussy Riot member hospitalised

MOSCOW: A jailed member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot was hospitalised on September 27 after going on a hunger strike to protest prison conditions, her husband said, but her condition was not clear.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was admitted to the hospital at the prison where she is serving a two-year term for a protest against President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s main Orthodox Christian cathedral, Pyotr Verzilov said.

Verzilov said the acting head of the prison had described Tolokonnikova’s condition as “horrible” but had given no further details. He also said prison officials would not show him documents about her transfer to hospital or allow her lawyers to visit.

The administration of the prison could not immediately be reached for comment, and prison service employees in the remote Mordovia region declined to comment.

Tolokonnikova, 23, announced on September 23 that she was starting a hunger strike to protest against “slave labour” at Corrective Colony No 14, where she is serving her sentence, and that she had received a death threat from a senior prison official.