Pussy Riot found guilty of hooliganism

A court in Moscow has found three members of Pussy Riot, a Russian feminist punk band, guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their role in performing a song in an Orthodox church criticising President Vladimir Putin.

Friday's verdict came amid criticism of a lack of freedom in Russia, with Pussy Riot supporters saying the case has put President Vladimir Putin's tolerance of dissent on trial.

Large crowds of supporters gathered outside the court in Moscow, including prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny. However critics of the band were also protesting.

The three young women, in handcuffs, stood in silence in a glass courtroom cage and at times smiled and laughed to each other as the judge, Marina Syrova, read out the verdict.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, stormed the altar of Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts and sang a "punk prayer" urging the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.

"Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich and Alyokhina committed an act of hooliganism, a gross violation of public order showing  obvious disrespect for society," Syrova said.

She said their brief protest was based on "motives of religious hatred and enmity".

It was not immediately clear how long the three women will stay in jail but prosecutors are pressing for a three-year jail sentence for the convicts.

Putin's opponents portray the trial as part of a wider crackdown by the former KGB spy to crush their protest movement.

Pop stars led by Madonna - who performed in Moscow with "PUSSY RIOT" painted on her back - have campaigned for the women's release, and Washington says the case is politically motivated.

In a sign of the tension over the trial in a small Moscow courtroom, judge Syrova was assigned bodyguards on Thursday following what authorities said were threats.

Police blocked off the street outside the brick courthouse with metal barriers, and police buses stood by. Four people were detained when they unfurled a banner reading: "Free Pussy Riot".

The trial has divided Russia's mainly Orthodox Christian society, with many backing the authorities' demands for severe punishment over a protest the prosecution has described as sacrilege, but others asking for clemency for the women.

Putin, who returned to the presidency for a third term in May and a four-year spell as prime minister, has said the women did "nothing good" but should not be judged too harshly.

An opinion poll of Russians released by the independent Levada research group on Friday showed only 6 per cent had sympathy with the women, 51 per cent said they found nothing good about them or felt irritation or hostility. The rest were unable to say or were indifferent.

The band members are educated, middle-class Russians who say their protest was intended to highlight close ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and Putin, not to offend believers.

The charges against Pussy Riot raised concern abroad about freedom of speech in Russia two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Protests in support of the group were planned on Friday in cities from Sydney to Paris, and New York to London, and a long list of international celebrities have backed their cause.