(File) Member of the all-girl punk band 'Pussy Riot,' Maria Alyokhina, smiles in a court in Moscow, on October 10, 2012.
(File) Member of the all-girl punk band 'Pussy Riot,' Maria Alyokhina, smiles in a court in Moscow, on October 10, 2012.
NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/GettyImages

Story highlights

A Russian court denied parole for Maria Alyokhina, a jailed member of Pussy Riot

Alyokhina and her defense team plan to appeal the Berezniki City Court's decision

She said she was on hunger strike because she was not allowed to appear in person

CNN  — 

A Russian court denied parole for Maria Alyokhina, a jailed member of the Pussy Riot punk band, state news agency Itar-Tass said Thursday.

Alyokhina and her defense team plan to appeal the Berezniki City Court’s decision, the news outlet said.

The rock musician was sentenced to two years in prison in August for performing a song critical of then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in an Orthodox cathedral last year.

Report: Russia clamping down on free speech

Members of the all-girl punk band 'Pussy Riot' Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (R), Maria Alyokhina (R) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (C) sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on Agust 17, 2012. A Moscow court will pass judgement Friday on three women from a tiny punk band who captured global attention by defying the Russian authorities and ridiculing President Vladimir Putin in a church. Pussy Riot release rallies have stretched from Sydney to New York as a growing list of celebrities joined ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and pop icon Madonna in a campaign directed against Putin's crackdown on most dissent. AFP PHOTO / ANDREY SMIRNOV (Photo credit should read ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/GettyImages)
Members of the all-girl punk band 'Pussy Riot' Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (R), Maria Alyokhina (R) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (C) sit in a glass-walled cage during a court hearing in Moscow on Agust 17, 2012. A Moscow court will pass judgement Friday on three women from a tiny punk band who captured global attention by defying the Russian authorities and ridiculing President Vladimir Putin in a church. Pussy Riot release rallies have stretched from Sydney to New York as a growing list of celebrities joined ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and pop icon Madonna in a campaign directed against Putin's crackdown on most dissent. AFP PHOTO / ANDREY SMIRNOV (Photo credit should read ANDREY SMIRNOV/AFP/GettyImages)
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Alyokhina had been barred from attending a parole hearing in person, and participated in a Wednesday court proceeding via teleconference from prison. She told a the court Wednesday she was on hunger strike because she was not allowed to appear in person.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, another band member, also received a two-year sentence in August for performing the song. Yekaterina Samutsevich, a third member of the band, was sentenced at the same time. But she was freed from prison last October.