Update on Pussy Riot Trial: Russia prosecutors seek three years' jail

BBC News - Pussy Riot: Russia prosecutors seek three years' jail Pussy Riot, three women performance artists, are on trial for insulting the church. For their "crime" church leaders are demanding the young women be imprisoned:

Feelings about the case within Russian society, where the Orthodox Church has enjoyed a revival since the collapse of the atheistic USSR, have been mixed.
'Abuse of God'

"The actions of the accomplices clearly show religious hatred and enmity," state prosecutor Alexei Nikiforov said in closing arguments.

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, has said the act amounted to blasphemy.

"Using swear words in a church is an abuse of God."

He said the women had "set themselves up against the Orthodox Christian world".

Given the "severity" of the crime, he argued, the "requisite punishment must be a real deprivation of freedom".