A member of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot has been freed by a Moscow court for staging an anti-Kremlin protest in a Moscow cathedral, but two other members have had their two-year jail sentence upheld.
A Moscow City Court judge has issued a suspended sentence for one member of feminist trio Pussy Riot.
30-year-old Yekaterina Samutsevich has been freed, but 22-year-old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and 24-year-old Maria Alyokhina had their appeal rejected and the court upheld the two-year-sentence imposed on them in August.
A Russian appeal court has upheld the two-year prison sentence given to two members of feminist trio Pussy riot by a court in August, and has freed a third member of the group.
A Moscow City Court judge said the court was leaving the sentences in place for Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina but issuing a suspended sentence for Yekaterina Samutsevich.
Three members of the punk band Pussy Riot are set to make their case before a Russian appeals court in Moscow today.
The feminist trio were convicted in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in prison for performing an anti-Putin protest song inside Moscow's third biggest cathedral.
The verdict was condemned in the US and Europe, where it was seen as an illustration of Mr Putin's intolerance of dissent.
Mr Putin, however has since defended the ruling saying "it is impermissible to undermine our moral foundations, moral values, to try to destroy the country".
A Russian court has postponed the band Pussy Riot's appeal hearing against their two-year sentence after a member of the trio fired their lawyer.
Yekaterina Samutsevich announced at the opening of hearing that she recused her three lawyers over an unspecified disagreement.
The hearing will now be held on October 10th.
The appeal hearing of Russia punk band Pussy Riot has been delayed after one of the trio jailed for staging an anti-Kremlin protest fired her lawyer.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports that Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, rejected the services of her lawyer because of a "difference of opinion".
There is currently a break and the judges have left the courtroom.
Ahead of Pussy Riot's appeal, senior church spokesman, Vladimir Legoida, said the band;s stunt "must not remain unpunished whatever the justification," but that any repentance, if expressed, should be taken into account.
The church sincerely wishes for the repentance of those who desecrated a holy place, certainly it would benefit their souls.
If any words of the convicts indicate repentance ... we would wish that they are not left unnoticed and those who violated the law get a chance to mend their ways."
A Russian court is due to hear an appeal by three members of the punk band Pussy Riot, who were jailed for two years in August for staging an anti-Kremlin protest in a Moscow cathedral.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, were found guilty of "an act of hooliganism based on motives of religious hatred and enmity".