An appeals court in Russia has freed one of the jailed members of punk band Pussy Riot while upholding the sentences handed down to the two remaining members in prison. Yekaterina Samutsevich, the oldest of the three women at 30, walked free into the arms of her father, after serving six months in a pre-trial detention centre after being found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred in August.
Yekaterina Samutsevich was expected to walk out of the court building Wednesday. The court upheld the sentences for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. Earlier the trio spoke defiantly at the appeal hearing, saying their protest song was political and not anti-Church. The other two women,
Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, hugged Samutsevich goodbye. They will now be sent to prison colonies to serve the remainder of their two-year terms. The judge ruled that Samutsevich’s sentence should be suspended since she had been thrown out of the cathedral by guards before she could participate in the performance.
Rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday’s ruling was “only a half-measure in achieving justice” for the women, and called for all three to be released immediately and unconditionally. But while the Church hierarchy said the women’s action “cannot be left unpunished”, it added that any penitence shown should be taken into consideration.
The band’s conviction and sentencing garnered an international outcry, with celebrities from Paul McCartney to Anthony Bourdain to Madonna backing the cause of the strident trio. The case against Pussy Riot has highlighted the crackdown on freedoms inside Russia since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in May amid a wave of discontent.
Yekaterina Samutsevich was expected to walk out of the court building Wednesday. The court upheld the sentences for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. Earlier the trio spoke defiantly at the appeal hearing, saying their protest song was political and not anti-Church. The other two women,
Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, hugged Samutsevich goodbye. They will now be sent to prison colonies to serve the remainder of their two-year terms. The judge ruled that Samutsevich’s sentence should be suspended since she had been thrown out of the cathedral by guards before she could participate in the performance.
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| Yekaterina Samutsevich, the oldest of the three women at 30, walked free into the arms of her father, after serving six months in a pre-trial detention centre. |
Rights group Amnesty International said Wednesday’s ruling was “only a half-measure in achieving justice” for the women, and called for all three to be released immediately and unconditionally. But while the Church hierarchy said the women’s action “cannot be left unpunished”, it added that any penitence shown should be taken into consideration.
The band’s conviction and sentencing garnered an international outcry, with celebrities from Paul McCartney to Anthony Bourdain to Madonna backing the cause of the strident trio. The case against Pussy Riot has highlighted the crackdown on freedoms inside Russia since Vladimir Putin returned to the presidency in May amid a wave of discontent.
