Pussy Riot guilty

THIS JUST IN: A Russian judge found the three members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” for staging an anti-Kremlin protest on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral (see 8/7 story). The sentence is the two-years, the minimum jail time for this charge. The three women—23-year-old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24-year-old Maria Alekhina and 29-year-old Yekaterina Samutsevich—have been in custody for five months following the February stunt, in which they took over a church pulpit in Christ the Savior cathedral for less than a minute, singing, high-kicking and dancing. The song Pussy Riot sang is called "Mother of God, Chase Putin Out." Meanwhile, in London, about 300 people turned out for a pro-Pussy Riot event at the Royal Court Theatre. Standing in the theater's basement cafe, they listened to three British actresses read translations of the band members' closing statements in court. A Royal Court director said the theater has "more than half a century of history of being a place of dissent." @nplusonemag has translated the closing statements here. (8/17a)