Pussy Riot band member Maria Alyokhina was sent to hospital by Russian prison authorities Tuesday, one week after going on hunger strike, dpa reported. Alyokhina was treated for low blood pressure, an unnamed prison spokesperson in the Urals region of Perm told the Itar-Tass news agency. The 24-year-old mother of a young child announced a hunger strike on May 22 to protest against a court decision barring her from attending her own parole hearing. Her request was promptly denied the next day. Alyokhina is serving a two-year sentence at a prison colony in the Perm region. A Moscow court found her and fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" for their performance of a protest song against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral. Tolokonnikova is jailed in a prison colony in Russia's Mordovia republic, while Samutsevich's sentence was suspended.
