Pussy Riot Member Denied Parole, Will Remain in Prison Colony

One of the two jailed members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot was denied early release by a Russian court today, meaning she will continue to serve out her two-year sentence for her participation in her band’s “punk prayer” protest against President Vladimir Putin.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who along with Pussy Riot members Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich was convicted of “hooliganism” charges back in August, has been in custody since March 2012. Her plea for early release was permitted by Russian law since she has now served half of her two-year sentence. She told the court in Zubova Polyana today that the prison camp where she is serving her sentence – a place the group has characterized on Twitter as the “harshest camps of all the possible choices” — did not support her request for release because she “didn’t repent,” according to the Associated Press.