DOZENS of activists gathered outside the Russian consulate in Edinburgh yesterday to protest on behalf of Russian punk band Pussy Riot.
The protesters wore T-shirts printed with the words "we are all Pussy Riot" and wore the band's trademark fluorescent balaclavas as they hit out at the group's two-year jail sentence for hooliganism in Moscow.
The protest, organised by Amnesty International, was part of a campaign on behalf of band members Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich.
An Amnesty spokesman said: "Amnesty considers the three women to be prisoners of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs."
The flash mob protest, which took place in the city's Melville Street at noon yesterday, was one of many throughout the world.
In London, banner-waving supporters protested outside the Russian embassy, and demonstrators also took to the streets of Dublin, Paris, Kiev, Berlin and Sofia.
Protesters also gathered outside the Moscow courthouse and burst into chants of "shame" when the sentence was revealed.
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