In an interesting turn of events, a Moscow appeals court freed one of the three members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riots and decided to uphold the two-year prison sentence for the other two.
The three members pleaded that they should not be imprisoned for their derisive way of protest against President Vladimir Putin, which they said was purely political and not an attack on religion. They argued that they did not mean to offend any, but was only protesting against the President and the Russian Orthodox Church for supporting him.
Members of the Pussy Riots band performed a "punk prayer" in Moscow's main cathedral in February asking Virgin Mary to save Russia from Putin. The girls dressed in neon-colored miniskirts and tights took out the protest at a time when Putin was going ahead with a march that would get him a third term in office as the President of the country.
The members were convicted later in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and sentenced to two years in a prison camp.
The court ruled that the band member Yekaterina Samutsevich can be freed because she was forced out of the cathedral by guards before she could join the other band members in their performance.
