A member of punk band Pussy Riot was freed on appeal yesterday but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin, who said they had got the jail terms they deserved.
Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court after six months behind bars but the appeal judge who suspended her two-year sentence said fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should serve out their terms. Samutsevich’s lawyer told the court that she had not performed the “punk protest” near the altar of Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February because she had been stopped and led away before it took place. – (Reuters)