Paul McCartney, U2 and Bruce Springsteen are among dozens of artists who have signed an open letter with Amnesty International calling for Pussy Riot’s release. The organization told The Associated Press that more than 100 musicians have joined the cause, which also includes Adele, Radiohead, Madonna, Yoko Ono, Patti Smith, Sting and Ke$ha. The group notes in the letter that the effects of Pussy Riot’s “shockingly unjust trial and imprisonment has spread far and wide, especially among your fellow artists, musicians and citizens around the world.”
Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23, and Maria Alyokhina, 25, are still imprisoned in Russia after receiving two-year sentences last August for their roles in a punk protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow Cathedral in February 2012. Alyokhina went on hunger strike in May and was denied parole; she later ended her hunger strike. A third group member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was freed on appeal last October.
