Russian prosecutors seek 3-year jail term for Pussy Riot

MOSCOW (AFP) - Prosecutors on Monday asked a Moscow court to lock up members of the Pussy Riot girl band for three years after they insulted President Vladimir Putin in a song, as Madonna made a plea for clemency.

As the full hearings in the controversial trial went into a second week, the state prosecutor Alexander Nikiforov said the young women's crime was so severe they needed to be isolated from society.

"This crime is severe and the prosecution considers that their correction is only possible in conditions of isolation from society and the punishment needed must be a real deprivation of freedom," Mr Nikiforov told the court.

On the eve of key presidential polls in March, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alyokhina barged into Christ the Saviour Cathedral and performed an anti-Putin "punk prayer" to protest his ultimately successful bid for a third Kremlin term.