Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Pussy Riot Member, Moved To Siberian Prison Colony

Russian prison authorities confirmed Thursday that Pussy Riot punk band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who had not been heard from for more than three weeks, had been moved to a Siberian prison colony.

"Convict Tolokonnikova has arrived to the institution of the Russian prison service in the Krasnoyarsk region," the region's prison service said in a statement.

A spokesman for the service said a letter containing her more precise coordinates has been sent to her lawyer and that he was not authorised to give that information out.

Asked about Tolokonnikova's health, the spokesman told AFP it was "normal" but would not say whether she was in prison or the medical ward.

Russia's rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said on Tuesday that he had been informed that Tolokonnikova "has been placed (in the penal colony's) medical ward".

Tolokonnikova, 24, had been missing for 24 days after being moved out of her original prison colony in central Russia's Mordovia region. She had earlier published a letter in Russian media alleging prison abuse.

Her unusually long transfer had led rights groups to demand information.

Tolokonnikova's husband Pyotr Verzilov had earlier said he believed his wife was bound for Nizhny Ingash, a town in the taiga that lies on the Transsiberian railway about 300 kilometres (185 miles) from the regional centre Krasnoyarsk and four time zones away from Moscow.

Tolokonnikova and fellow band member Maria Alyokhina, who is being kept in the Ural region of Perm, will in March serve out their jail sentence for performing a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral protesting ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Kremlin.

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