COPENHAGEN, 13 September 2012 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Riccardo Migliori (MP, Italy) today welcomed comments by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that incarcerated Pussy Riot band members should be freed early from their two-year prison sentence.

"I welcome the leadership shown by Prime Minister Medvedev for rightly acknowledging that these women have been in jail long enough," Migliori said. "To be sure, these women should have never been in jail in the first place."

Three members of the anti-Kremlin punk band – Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova – were sentenced to two years in prison last month on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after singing their criticism of Vladimir Putin in Russia's official cathedral. They have been in jail since March and are now awaiting an appeal of their case which is expected to start next month.

"We don't have to agree with what these women said or how and where they said it, but we do have to respect their right to say it," Migliori said. "I hope the judiciary will agree that the sentence in this case was disproportionate at best, a violation of free speech at worst, and that is time for these women to be released and exonerated."

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of Media Representative Dunja Mijatovic has said "Charges of hooliganism and religious hatred should not be used to curb freedom of expression. Speech no matter how provocative, satirical or sensitive should not be restricted or suppressed and under no circumstances should it lead to imprisonment."