A court in Moscow has turned down a civil claim for compensation against the female punk collective Pussy Riot.
A resident of the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia had claimed 30,000 rubles ($930) as compensation for moral damage she allegedly incurred as a result of the group's protest performance against President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow cathedral in February.
Presiding Judge Maxim Sokolov found no evidence supporting the charge.
The case was the first civil lawsuit filed against the punkers Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich who were found guilty of religiously-motivated hooliganism and sentenced to two years in jail last month.
The sentence sparked protests in Russia and abroad.
Western diplomats, human rights activists, and popular musicians have expressed concern over the verdict, saying that the case amounts to the oppression of free speech by the Russian authorities.
A resident of the city of Novosibirsk in Siberia had claimed 30,000 rubles ($930) as compensation for moral damage she allegedly incurred as a result of the group's protest performance against President Vladimir Putin at a Moscow cathedral in February.
Presiding Judge Maxim Sokolov found no evidence supporting the charge.
The case was the first civil lawsuit filed against the punkers Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich who were found guilty of religiously-motivated hooliganism and sentenced to two years in jail last month.
The sentence sparked protests in Russia and abroad.
Western diplomats, human rights activists, and popular musicians have expressed concern over the verdict, saying that the case amounts to the oppression of free speech by the Russian authorities.
