Update: Pussy Riot member's jail deferment denied

Pussy Rioter asks Russian court for sentence deferment: Maria Alekhina, center, and bandmates Yekaterina Samutsevich, left, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage in a Moscow courtroom in November 2012. IMAGE

AP Photo: Sergey Ponomarev, File. Pussy Rioter asks Russian court for sentence deferment: Maria Alekhina, center, and bandmates Yekaterina Samutsevich, left, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage in a Moscow courtroom in November 2012. IMAGE

1/16/13 By MSN News with wire reports

Maria Alekhina, one of two Pussy Rioters jailed for "hooliganism" after criticizing Russian President Putin, had asked that her sentence be deferred until her 5-year-old son is 14. She argued that her absence would cause him irreparable harm.

BEREZNIKI, Russia — A member of feminist punk band Pussy Riot was denied her petition to a Russian court Wednesday to defer her two-year sentence until her 5-year-old son is a teenager, arguing that separation from her child now will do irreparable psychological damage.

Maria Alekhina, 24, petitioned the court in Berezniki, a remote Ural Mountains town near where she is imprisoned, to make the extremely rare decision to let her defer her sentence until her young son is 14.

"The court has ruled against granting the request," the state-run RIA news agency quoted the judge as saying.

She was convicted last year along with two other band members of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for an anti-President Vladimir Putin stunt in Russia's main cathedral. One of the women had her sentence suspended on appeal.

Alekhina told the court Wednesday that while she wanted her sentence deferred, she refused to plead guilty.

"No one will force me to say I'm guilty — I have nothing to repent for," she said.

Her 5-year-old son, Filipp, is going through his formative years and cannot be without her, she said.

"I'm in a situation where I have to prove here that my son needs me, which is obvious," she said.

Several dozen supporters and journalists gathered outside the Berezniki court building, which was guarded by riot police — a rare situation for the small town.

Sentence deferrals are uncommon. In fact, there are several prison colonies for female convicts with small children who raise their babies behind bars.

In the most publicized precedent, a woman in Eastern Siberia who drove her car onto a sidewalk, killing one woman and leaving another confined to a wheelchair, had her sentence deferred in 2010 because she had just had a baby. The woman, who did not admit guilt or apologize to the families of the victims, turned out to be a daughter of a senior local official, sparking suspicions of selective justice.

The Pussy Riot members performed a "punk prayer" at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral, pleading with the Virgin Mary for deliverance from Putin. Yekaterina Samutsevich's sentence was suspended in October after she argued she was thrown out by guards before she could take part in the stunt.

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