Two members of punk band Pussy Riot lost their appeal to stay in a Moscow pre-trial detention centre yesterday, said their lawyer, and will now serve their terms in a remote penal colony.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (22) and Maria Alyokhina (24) had their two-year sentence imposed over a cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin upheld by Moscow City Court last week. They are convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina have children and lawyers say a transfer will complicate contacts with their families. The nearest penal colony is 100km from Moscow.
Russian prisons are notorious for squalid conditions and often brutal treatment of inmates by personnel.
