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Pussy Riot to Receive LennonOno Grant for Peace in New York

Spokesperson, legal defense team will also hold talk and benefit

By ROLLING STONE
SEPTEMBER 20, 2012

Persecuted Russian punks Pussy Riot will receive the LennonOno Grant For Peace in New York tomorrow. Yoko Ono will present the grant to Pyotr Verzilov – spokesman and husband of Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova – their young daughter Gera and the entire legal defense team.

Pussy Riot's legal defense team will also hold a talk at New York University's School of Law tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern, with NYU Law professor Amy Adler moderating. A benefit for the group will be held in partnership with FLATT Magazine, Amnesty International, FreePussyRiot.org, The Feminist Press and the Voice Project on Saturday at Manhattan's Americano at 8 p.m. Eastern.

The three imprisoned members of Pussy Riot have appealed their conviction and two-year prison sentence for "hooliganism," while other members of the group have fled Russia to escape arrest. The group recently released a video thanking Madonna, Björk, Green Day, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and other artists for their public support while they burned a poster of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev recently said the group should be freed, and Sinead O'Connor penned a letter to Putin earlier this week calling for the group's release.

Ono will honor the other recipients of this year's biennial LennonOno Grant for Peace – Rachel Corrie, John Perkins, Christopher Hitchens and an unidentified peace activist – October 9th in Iceland. 

Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot
AFP/GettyImages