Peace activist Yoko Ono on Friday joined the prominent call to free the three imprisoned Pussy Riot punk band members, saluting their stand for freedom of speech after being handed a two-year sentence for staging a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral.
"I thank Pussy Riot in standing firmly in their belief for freedom of expression and making all women of the world proud to be women," Ono told reporters in New York, flanked by the husband and four-year-old daughter of one band member.
She awarded the three imprisoned members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - a peace grant established in the name of her late husband, former Beatle John Lennon.
Tolokonnikova's husband, Pyotr Verzilov, accepted Ono's grant on behalf of the three women. He said he and his daughter visited Tolokonnikova in prison for the first time in six months earlier this week, where she is kept with her two fellow band members segregated from other prisoners.
Their daughter had sent her mother scribblings of plans of escape. "For her it has been very emotional," he said, talking of his daughter's drawing. "She breaks down the prison walls and helps Nadia's escape."
On Thursday Verzilov met with U.S lawmakers and aides who have drafted legislation, known as the Magnitsky bill, to impose U.S. sanctions against any Russian officials involved in the prosecution of the band.
