Prosecutors Demand Jail Time for Feminist Punk Rockers

Prosecutors have asked for a three-year sentence against the three members of the feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot who were charged with hooliganism after promoting an anti-Vladimir Putin riot outside of Moscow's Christ Savior Cathedral.

While human rights groups demand that the women be set free, prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov claims that the sentence is lenient considering the charges could actually carry a sentence of up to seven years. Nikiforov states that because two of the young women are mothers and have good references, three years is a fair enough sentence.

The verdict is expected to come later this week.

The three women of Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, Maria Alekhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 - have remained in Russian custody for five months following the staged high-profile protest in February, where the women donned masks and formed a crowd around Moscow's main cathedral where they began to lead an anti-Putin "punk prayer."

Although Nikiforov claimed in a statement on Tuesday that "[The women] set themselves off against the Orthodox world and sought to devalue traditions and dogmas that have been formed for the centuries," the feminist members of Pussy Riot insist they did not mean to hurt anyone's religious feelings or values. All they wished to do was openly voice their resentment of Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill's support for Putin's rule.

During the first week of hearings, Pussy Riot lawyer Violetta Volkova voiced the band's complaint that the women were being deprived of sleep and food throughout the trial in what they described as being "torture."

The case has sharply divided religious followers in Russia, with some believers insulted by the protest while others agree with Amnesty International that the three women are being held as prisoners of conscience and "detained solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs."