Anti-Putin Russian punks Pussy Riot plead not guilty

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Russian dissident punk group Pussy Riot have pleaded not guilty to accusations of hooliganism and religious hate crimes.

The female threepiece, consisting of Yekaterina Samutsevich, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, were taken into custody last February after staging an anti-Putin protest at a Moscow cathedral.

The band have rejected the view that they were “inciting hooliganism”, instead calling the protest a “punk prayer”. They have also been accused of blasphemy by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Alekhina issued a statement saying that the act was “as a result of the influence of political, law-enforcement and spiritual elites”.

The band have already been detained 5 months without bail, even though two of the women have young children.

The trial continues.