Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters Nadezhda Tolokonnikova of the punk band "Pussy Riot" looks out from a holding cell as she attends a court hearing to appeal for parole at the Supreme Court of Mordovia in Saransk, Russia, on July 26, 2013.

A jailed member of Russian female punk group Pussy Riot lost a court battle to be released but remained unrepentant over last year's protest against President Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova watched from behind the black metal bars of a courtroom cage as a regional court on Friday upheld an earlier decision not to release her after nearly a year in prison so that she could look after her five-year-old daughter.

Dressed in black, with the words "No Pasaran" (Spanish for "They shall not pass") written in white across her chest, she refused to plead guilty even though it might have won her favor in court.

"I do not admit guilt and will not plead guilty. I have principles upon which I will stand," she said from the cage, often used for defendants or convicts in Russian courts. Read the full story.

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