Band Gets Two Years For Anti Putin Message

Punk rock band, Pussy Riot, has been sentenced to two years in jail, after a judge declared them guilty.

Judge Marina Syrova decreed that the band were guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred".

In March, the band performed an anti Putin prayer, inside Christ the Savior Cathedral.

 They claimed the did so, in protest of the Russian Orthodox Church's support of Putin; a claim the judge threw out.

After the sentence was announced, the crowd outside of the court, which was made up of hundreds of protesters, began chanting "down with the police state".

Police arrested at least fifty of the protesters, including Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion.

Prominent musicians, activists, and politicians around the world have condemned the guilty verdict and sentence as being criminal and a strike against human rights and free speech.