Church calls for 'mercy' on Pussy Riot - Sky News Australia

Updated: 12:30, Saturday August 18, 2012

One of the largest Christian churches in the world has called for Russian authorities to show mercy on the three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot who were sentenced to prison for performing an anti-Kremlin protest in a cathedral.

A Moscow court on Friday handed two-year jail sentences to each of the three young women who infuriated the government and captured world attention by ridiculing President Vladimir Putin in Russia's main church.

The Russian Orthodox Church has since issued a statement on the matter.

'Without doubting the legitimacy of the court ruling, we ask the state authorities to show mercy for the convicted within the framework of the law in the hopes that they will refrain from repeating their sacrilegious acts,' the church said in the statement.

The church's highest council also indicated in the statement that it was hoping the women would repent for their behaviour.

'It is important to separate sin from the sinner, condemning the former and hoping for repentance from the latter,' the statement said.

The three women had said before the verdict they were not sorry about staging the anti-Putin stunt and would not ask the president for a pardon.