Jailed Russian Pussy Riot women denied food, water for criticizing Putin

Three members of Russian punks-against-Putin band, Pussy Riot, are reportedly being denied both food and water, and could face up to seven years' imprisonment if convicted of hooliganism.

They have been charged with staging an impromptu protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral.

The three women are languishing in a jail, and are reportedly terrified, separated from their children and deprived of food, water and sleep for long stretches.

"It's torture," whispers Maria Alyokhina as she glances anxiously towards the guard.We don't sleep and we are not given any food. But God is with me, and I won't be scared by what a man can do to me," the Daily Mail quoted her, as saying.

The women were dressed in colourful costumes and wore knitted balaclavas during their cathedral protest, which has been labelled a sacrilege.

During a one-minute performance they danced around the cathedral's altar, high-kicking, bowing, blessing themselves and chanting: 'Mother Mary, drive Putin away.'

A video was posted on YouTube two weeks before the presidential vote in March in which Putin won a third term, despite a wave of massive protests against his rule.

Though terrified by the prospect of a lengthy jail sentence, Maria, another protestor, remains defiantly determined that she has right on her side.

For more than five months, Maria, 24, and her fellow band members Nadia Tolokonnikova, 22, and Katya Samutsevich, 29, have languished in jail awaiting their trial, which began last week at Moscow's Khamovniki district court.

After lengthy courtroom appearances each day, the women are rarely allowed to sleep for more than four hours at night, and are frequently denied food and water for up to 12 hours, while cooped up in their perspex cage.

Once inside their stuffy, airless cage, they are even denied access to the 3,000 pages of so-called evidence against them. (ANI)