PERM, February 8 - RAPSI. The Berezniki City Court in the Perm Territory on Friday invalidated two of the four penalties levied against Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina in the local prison, a court spokesperson told RIA Novosti.

The administration of the Berezniki prison imposed several penalties on Alyokhina for violating prison rules. On January 31, the court began hearing her appeal, with Alyokhina participating via videoconference from the prison.

"The court invalidated two of the penalties, one for getting up late and the other for uncivil behavior towards a prison employee, and upheld the other two penalties, one for getting up late and the other for handing private correspondence over to a lawyer," the source said.

In mid January, the Berezniki City Court rejected Alyokhina's appeal of her sentence. She asked for her punishment to be deferred on the grounds that she has a small child. The Berezniki court concluded that this circumstance had been taken into account by the Khamovniki District Court in Moscow which passed the verdict on the three members of the Pussy Riot punk group, and that no new arguments had been provided to justify the mitigation of her punishment.

In late February 2012, five young women wearing brightly colored balaclavas performed a "punk-style" prayer at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. An edited video of their performance was posted on the Internet and caused a public outcry.

Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were arrested shortly thereafter. On August 17, the Khamovniki District Court sentenced them to two years in a prison settlement for disorderly conduct.

On October 10, the Moscow City Court changed Samutsevich's verdict to a suspended sentence and released her immediately based on her new attorneys argument that she was seized by security guards prior to making it to the altar. Thus, she did not actually perform the punk prayer with the other girls. The court upheld Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova's sentence.