Azernews.Az

The defense team for the two jailed Pussy Riot members has asked the court to defer execution of their two-year prison sentences until their children reach age 14, lawyer Mark Feigin said on Wednesday, RIA Novosti reported.

"We have filed a petition with the Khamovniki District Court," he said.

"The court has officially accepted the petition and is to set a hearing date within 10 days."

On Monday, the court denied a request by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, to stay at the pretrial detention center where they are presently being held.

A Moscow court last Wednesday freed a third Pussy Riot member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, at an appeal hearing, but ruled that the two other women in the anti-Putin punk group must serve out their two-year sentences.

They are now set to be transferred to a penal colony hundreds of miles from Moscow.

The three women were jailed for two years on August 17, after a court found them guilty of "hooliganism with the aim of inciting religious hatred" in a decision that drew sharp international criticism.

Lawyers for the group have rejected the argument that the group's 40-second performance of a song entitled "Holy S**t" was anti-religion, saying it was a protest against the Orthodox Church's support for Vladimir Putin ahead of the presidential elections on March 4.