Contact: Carol Gregory,[email protected],202-675-8759,@AIUSAmedia
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Amnesty International USA released the following statement in response to reports that Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova had been transferred to a prison in Siberia.
"There is a global spotlight on the deteriorating human rights situation in Russia. Sending Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to Siberia will not dim the glare on President Putin's crackdown on basic freedoms," said Samir Goswami, director of Individuals and Communities at Risk, Amnesty International USA. "Russian authorities must immediately tell her family where she is and allow her access to a lawyer. Nadezhda is a brave voice for freedom, and prisoner of conscience who should not have been sentenced to prison in the first place. If reports are true, transferring her to a prison colony thousands of miles from Moscow would make it impossible for her family and lawyers to see her. This would be a further grave violation of her human rights and Russia's own laws."
Amnesty International continues to call for the immediate and unconditional release of the two imprisoned members of Pussy Riot and to document the crackdown against freedom of expression in our Russia timeline.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million members in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.