One Pussy Riot member freed on Appeal, two stay jailed
MOSCOW. October 10. KAZINFORM A Moscow court reduced the two-year prison sentence for Pussy Riot member Ekaterina Samutsevich to a suspended sentence at an appeal hearing on Wednesday, while her two convicted band mates had their sentences upheld.
Samutsevich walked out of the courtroom to freedom, while Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, will remain behind bars in a penal colony to serve out their two-year sentences, Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.
"We are glad that Ekaterina Samutsevich has been freed, but we fail to see how her role sigbificantly differed from those of the others," Lawyer Mark Feygin said after the new sentence was given.
The original appeal hearing was delayed on October 1 when Samutsevich unexpectedly fired her lawyer, Violetta Volkova. The move sowed confusion and resulted in state prosecutors accusing the defendants of deliberately delaying the proceedings.
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