The website of the Moscow court that convicted members of punk band Pussy Riot for singing an anti-Putin song in a cathedral was hacked on Tuesday.
A banner decrying the Russian President was splashed across the website of Khamovnichesky District Court in response to the ruling, saying: “Putin’s thieving gang is looting our country! Wake up, comrades!”
Beneath it a YouTube video of Pussy Riot’s new song “Putin is lighting the fires of the revolution" was posted along with a video of gay Bulgarian singer Azis singing a track entitled ‘hate.'
The site was hacked, showing a video of singer Azis writhing in bed with another man
Tabs on the site read “Free Pussy Riot,” and “Only an Open Trial Can Be Fair.”
The site was back up at 8am GMT but appeared to have gone down again on Tuesday afternoon.
The hack was a clear attack on Friday’s ruling, which saw three of the band’s members sentenced to two years in jail each.
The three women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 were convicted of “hooliganism driven by religious hatred” despite worldwide protests.
Russia's state run media has painted members of Pussy Riot as heretics, revealing the extent of orthodox feeling in Russia. There are fears the trio may face violent attack in prison, reported The Guardian.
The group often perform in colourful balaclavas: protestors donned the headwear in solidarity with the punk band
Hacking group Anonymous claimed responsibility for the cyber attack, writing:
"We are American group Anonymous. We don't forget and we don't forgive."
"Justice system has to be transparent. Pussy [Riot's members] are alive," it added.
Anonymous launched a series of attacks on UK government websites on Monday night in revenge for the country attempting to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden.
It announced the attacks over Twitter using the hashtag #OpFreeAssange and declaring that justice.gov.uk and number10.gov.uk were ‘tangoDown’.
The group attempted to disrupt the websites by launching denial of service attacks, which overload sites by filing thousands of requests a second.