Samutsevich fights for jailed bandmates
KRASNOGORSK (Russia): Pussy Riot member Yekaterina Samutsevich, freed on appeal after several months in jail, is in daily contact with her two jailed bandmates – and still fighting for their release.
Samutsevich may still have a suspended sentence hanging over her head, but she called her release a victory for the punk feminists.
Her time in jail has not left her unscathed, however: she has filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights over her treatment there.
At a meeting in the Moscow satellite town of Krasnogorsk, Samutsevich looked bright-eyed but drawn: she was having trouble sleeping, she explained.
“I feel OK. I’m a bit tired because I’m being asked to go somewhere all the time, people are asking me to comment all the time,” she said.
The public attention had come as a shock, she admitted.
Pussy Riot shot to fame in February when they staged an impromptu performance inside Moscow’s main cathedral mocking President Vladimir Putin – and the Russian Orthodox Church’s ties to the state.
She and fellow bandmates Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were jailed for two years for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.
Samutsevich hired a new lawyer for the appeal, who argued she should not go to prison because guards had grabbed her and her guitar before she could perform the “punk prayer”.
It worked: Samutsevich had her sentence suspended and she was freed by the court. But her bandmates lost their appeal and face being sent to a labour camp.
“As we see it as a group, the three of us, it was a victory,” she said.
“At least one of us three was freed, even if it was a suspended sentence.
“Naturally now we are going to fight for Masha and Nadia to come out too,” she added, referring to her bandmates. — AFP