Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been out of contact with her family and her lawyer for 20 days, according to Tolokonnikova’s husband, Pyotr Verzilov.
The location of Tolokonnikova remains a mystery. She was removed from Penal Colony No. 14 in Mordovia on October 21, and has been inaccessible to her family and legal representatives ever since.
Russia’s Federal Penal Service (FSIN) said in a statement released to Interfax Friday that Tolokonnikoca is still on her way to a new penal colony. Inerfax is a Moscow-based non-governmental news agency.
In the statement, the FSIN claims that Tolokonnikova is in satisfactory health and that “no complaints have come from her.”
“May we reiterate that,” the FSIN statement said, “under Article 17 of the Penalty Enforcement Code of the Russian Federation, the administration of [the penal colony] will notify only one relative of the convict (to be chosen by the latter) about her arrival at the institution, and will do so no later than within 10 days of her arrival.”
Amnesty International has demanded that Russian authorities immediately disclose where they are holding Tolokonnikova.
Last Tuesday (Nov. 5, 2013) Verzilov told Rolling Stone that his wife was being transferred to a prison in the city of Krasnoyarsk, 2,600 miles east of Moscow, in the heart of Siberia.
“It’s 100 percent that it’s Krasnoyarsk region,” Verzilov told Rolling Stone during a phone interview. The information came from a source in Russia’s prison administration, Verzilov said.
Verzilov said he believed his wife was headed for Colony 50, near the town of Nizhny Ingash, which is 190 miles from the city of Krasnoyarsk. This prison is in a much more remote location than Penal Colony No. 14.
On Thursday however, The Daily Beast called the prison and was told Tolokonnikova was not there. “An unindentified woman at the prison, who answered The Daily Beast’s phone call, told reporters that ‘Tolokonnikova is not being kept at #50,’ The Daily Beast reported.
