Maria Alyokhina hospitalised after going on hunger strike when she was prevented from attending parole hearing
A jailed member of anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot remains "upbeat" despite being transferred to a prison hospital after going on hunger strike last week.
Maria Alyokhina, 24, stopped taking food eight days ago in protest at being denied permission to attend her parole hearing at a court in Berezniki, the town in the Ural Mountains where her prison is located.
Alyokhina was refused early release after prosecutors said she hadn't repented of her crime and had violated prison rules.
"Masha is upbeat and determined to carry on the struggle," said Pyotr Verzilov, husband of fellow Pussy Riot convict Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who is serving her sentence in Russia's Mordovia republic. Tolokonnikova was also denied parole.
Verzilov, who said he had visited Alyokhina several times in the past few days, said prison authorities had been administering medical injections to Alyokhina and were monitoring her condition in an isolated section of the prison's hospital ward.
Alyokhina is spending most of her time reading and writing, he said, whereas she would normally be sewing uniforms with fellow inmates at the women's prison.
Pussy Riot shot to fame in February last year after staging a provocative "punk prayer", railing against Vladimir Putin and Russia's top religious official in Moscow's main cathedral.
In August, three band members – Alyokhina, Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich – were convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for the performance, although Samutsevich was later freed on appeal.
The opposition has cast the trio as martyrs for their defiant stand against the ruling regime, but opinion polls show that most Russians view their punishment as fitting.
More than a year into her two-year sentence, Alyokhina says prison authorities in Berezniki's Prison Colony No 28 are intent on setting fellow inmates against her by imposing draconian security rules on the whole colony.
In a letter passed by her lawyers to Ekho Moskvy radio, Alyokhina said she was being "systematically pressured" by prison wardens.
"Prison officials are trying to show that they're not bothered about Masha's hunger strike, but all she's asking is to be treated fairly," said Irina Khrunova, one of Alyokhina's lawyers.
Khrunova said the authorities were trying to intimidate her client by placing her with hardened criminals and that later this week she would appeal against the court ruling denying Alyokhina parole.
On Wednesday, an officially sanctioned prison watchdog visited the Berezniki prison to check up on Alyokhina, and Verzilov said prison wardens had promised the group that they would review their security rules in light of Alyokhina's complaints.
Alyokhina has promised to end her hunger strike if the prison's security regime is relaxed.
On the same day, the Moscow city court threw out an appeal against Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova's original sentencing, ruling that the pair had violated public order laws.
The court dismissed the fact that Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova have young children as grounds for their release. "They are simply hooligans," the court chairman, Olga Yegorova, told journalists.
Supporters regard Pussy Riot's prosecution as part of a wider crackdown on dissent during Putin's third presidential term. International celebrities including Sir Paul McCartney have called for the band members to be freed.
Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova are due to be released in March 2014.