Pussy Riot Member Appeals to European Court of Human Rights

Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich is taking the punk group's case to the ECHR. Photo by RIA Novosti

Yekaterina Samutsevich, a member of the anti-Putin punk group Pussy Riot, has lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights.

Last week a Moscow court freed Samutsevich at an appeal hearing, but ruled that two other women from the anti-Putin punk group must serve out their two-year sentences.

Samutsevich's lawyer Irina Khrunova said Friday that the arrest of her client was an infringement of the freedom to express opinion and "violates the Article 10 of the European Convention that guarantees the freedom of speech", as cited by the Russian daily Kommersant and RIA Novosti.

Khrunova said that the final and detailed complaint will be submitted with the human rights court in Strasbourg by the end of the year.

The three women from the scandalous female punk band "Pussy Riot" were jailed for two years on August 17, after a court found them guilty of "hooliganism with the aim of inciting religious hatred" in a decision that drew sharp international criticism.

Lawyers for the group have rejected the argument that the group's 40-second performance of a song entitled "Holy S**t" was anti-religion, saying it was a protest against the Orthodox Church's support for Vladimir Putin ahead of the presidential elections on March 4.

The two other group members detained after the February 21 performance, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, are now set to be transferred to a penal colony hundreds of miles from Moscow.

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