MOSCOW, December 21 (RAPSI) – The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow on Thursday sentenced Maria Alyokhina, a member of the infamous feminist punk group Pussy Riot, to 40 hours of community service for unauthorized protest action near the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) headquarters, the court’s spokesperson Yulia Kotomina told RAPSI.

Alyokhina was found guilty of violating the established order for organizing and holding public events.

As reported earlier, she was arrested along with several other people after an authorized picket near the FSB building on Wednesday.

Alyokhina is known for being a member of feminist punk group Pussy Riot. In February 2012, Alyokhina along with four other young women wearing brightly colored balaclavas staged a punk rock prayer in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. An edited video of their performance was posted on the Internet and caused a public outcry.

In August 2012, the Khamovnichesky District Court in Moscow sentenced Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to two years in a prison settlement for hooliganism. In October 2012, the Moscow City Court changed Samutsevich's verdict to a suspended sentence and released her immediately based on her new attorneys' argument that she had been seized by security guards prior to reaching the altar. In December 2013, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were pardoned under the amnesty dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution.