A MEMBER of punk band Pussy Riot was freed on appeal but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others imposed over a raucous cathedral protest against Vladimir Putin.
Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court yesterday 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.
"I have mixed feelings," Samutsevich, 30, said outside the court, where she was greeted by applause and whistles from a crowd of about 150 people in the rain. "I'm happy, of course, but I am upset about the girls."
Her lawyer told the court Samutsevich 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.
Defence lawyers, relatives of the women and rights activists including the chairman of President Putin's own presidential human rights council, Mikhail Fedotov, criticised the split ruling.
"All three of those convicted in this case could certainly be given suspended sentences and that would be right," Mr Fedotov said.
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