MOSCOW, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A jailed member of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot has been moved to a different jail after staging a hunger strike to protest conditions, officials said.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, was sentenced to two years in prison after the group staged a musical protest critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin inside a church. Though Tolokonnikova now only has six months left to serve, she began a hunger strike Sept. 23 to protest conditions at the women's prison in Mordovia where she was sent to serve out her sentence, CNN said Friday.
Tolokonnikova said in a letter to The Guardian that women at the prison are made to work in slave labor up to 17 hours a day through illness and injury and are beaten by guards if they do not comply. Tolokonnikova said she has not been beaten because of her high-profile status but others do not receive that kind of special treatment.
Tolokonnikova's husband said he received word she was being transferred to a different prison but he hadn't been told which one yet.
