HispanicBusiness

A Russian court on Friday denied parole to Nadya Tolokonnikova, a member of the punk band Pussy Riot currently serving a two-year jail term.

The court in the Mordova region of central Russia denied the plea after an eight-hour hearing, the Interfax news agency reported.

Tolokonnikova had argued that she was suffering from chronic headaches and that six months in the prison camp was enough. However, she has not recanted her not-guilty plea on the hooliganism charges she was convicted of.

The 23-year-old student, who has a young daughter, was sentenced to two years in prison in August for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

The charges stem from a February 2012 performance in a Moscow cathedral, where the band filmed a protest song against President Vladimir Putin.

One other member of the anti-Kremlin band, Maria Alyokhina, remains imprisoned, while a third member, Yekaterina Zamutsevich, was released on probation.

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HispanicBusiness editor's note: This being still a free country, we're happy to show a video of the performance that gave Putin a big sad: