On Monday, a Russian court adjourned an appeal hearing for three members of the Pussy Riot punk band regarding their conviction for a protest against President Vladimir Putin, after one of the trio sacked her lawyers.
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About a hundred people – Pussy Riot supporters in colorful T-shirts, as well as mainly elderly Russian Orthodox Christians – filled corridors of the Moscow court and others stood outside.
As reported by Reuters:
One of the band members, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was seen sitting in a glass and metal courtroom cage alongside her two band mates, told the Moscow court she disagreed with her lawyers’ handling of the case and the hearing was put off until Oct. 10.
“My position on the criminal case does not match their (the lawyers’) position,” Tolokonnikova told the small courtroom, packed with supporters, family members and reporters. She gave no details.
Western governments have portrayed the three women’s two-year sentences as excessive, and opposition groups see it as part of a crackdown on dissent by Putin, but many Russians regard the protest band as irreverent self-publicists.
Samutsevich, 30, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, in August were convicted of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after storming into the Christ the Saviour Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow in February and belting out a “punk prayer” asking the Virgin Mary to rid Russia of Putin.
All of the band members are aware that they could get a pardon or a reduced sentence if they would admit guilt, but they have refused to do so.
The band members say their protest was not intended to offend believers; it was motivated by anger over Putin’s closeness to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
SOURCE: Reuters
