Free Pussy Riot: Legal Defense Fund is Next Phase

Cause leader Robert Lieber helped craft a petition on Causes.com asking for the release of Pussy Riot, the Punk Rock feminist art collective in Russia that were charged with hooliganism in March of this year after protesting at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow. “It was shortly after their arrest in March. I started working with [Alex Goldfarb, creator of FreePussyRiot.org] shortly thereafter.”

More than 16,000 people signed the FreePussyRiot.org petition on Causes, and a majority of supportive comments flooded the page. Last week, Alex Goldfarb and Robert turned confronted the Russian consulate in New York City with more than 500 pages of petitions. “Alex downloaded the petition at Kinko’s and we took it down to the embassy…There was a gated entryway for people going in for visas. We had tons of cameras around us. Alex and I got up [to the gate] and the [guard] just wasn’t going to take it. We put it inside the fence and left it there for them.”

The Pussy Riot Legal Defense Fund

On July 30, 2012, three of the seven members of Pussy Riot – Yekaterina Samutsevich (29) Maria Alyokhina (24) and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (22) from left to right - were put on trial for the performance and subsequently sentenced to two years in prison by a Russian judge. FreePussyRiot.org created a pussy riot legal defense fund on Causes to help with the Pussy Riot appeals process, which is taking place next week. We spoke to Robert about the next phase of Free Pussy Riot’s cause.

Pussy Riot’s legal team will file an appeal this week to a higher court in Russia asking to review the verdict. Robert said the three lawyers for the women – each have their own lawyer – are hopeful about the process. “This week we’ll have a date, and fairly soon, to appeal in Moscow’s city courthouse. The next appeal after that would be the Russian Supreme Court. The girls haven’t been sent to labor camps and they won’t until the appeals process will be over. We’re really hoping for the Supreme court appeal.”

Legal fees for Pussy Riot are adding up. Through Causes, Robert and his team partnered with The Voices Project and set up a Pussy Riot legal defense fund. Hunter Heaney, co-founder of The Voice Project, detailed the partnership in an email to us saying,  ”The Voice Project volunteered to step in as the US based 501(c)(3) to provide tax-deductability to US donors and provide administrative support, and so those two platform accounts were switched over to make us the beneficiary, and money goes into a single fund on our side, The Pussy Riot Legal Defense Fund. We are taking no admin fees out, sending 100% on…” Alex, the founder of Free Pussy Riot, told us through email, “The Fund has been set up in Moscow and is controlled and administered by the three lawyers for the defendants.”

Robert said the Free Pussy Riot team will travel to Strasbourg, France to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Pussy Riot, which will be a costly trip. More importantly, the families of the women need help to support the women. “The money is going to all the food that [Yekaterina, Maria, and Nadezhda] eat, all of their personal needs and toiletries. The prison doesn’t provide any of this stuff.”

For now, the women sit in a cell knowing very well that thousands of supporters worldwide are fighting, in spirit and in protest, alongside them. “The women need a microphone and they are very happy that they’ve gotten the support of what they see as kindred spirits. It’s a beautiful thing. We need to remember that Pussy Riot is also speaking on behalf of all other problems in Russia,” said Rob.

You can learn more about Free Pussy Riot’s cause here or contribute to their legal fund. More information about The Pussy Riot Legal Defense Fund can be found here.