Moscow: A Russian court on Wednesday opened a hearing into the appeal of three members of feminist punk band Pussy Riot who were sentenced to two years in prison camp for performing an anti-Putin song in a cathedral.
The development in Moscow comes days after President Vladimir Putin gave his backing to the verdict, in remarks that one of the women’s lawyers says shows his personl involvement in the case.
Maria Alyokhina, 24, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, are contesting their conviction for hooliganism over their protest stunt in Moscow’s main cathedral in February where they performed the song.
Calls for their freedom have been made by world figures from Madonna to Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi while the women have been nominated for the EU parliament’s prestigious Sakharov prize for freedom of thought.
The hearing started in Moscow city court at 0700 GMT with a decision possible on the same day, although one that quickly is far from certain due to the legal technicalities.
The three women sat in the glass-paned defendants’ cage, looking solemn and listening attentively to the proceedings, speaking only to say they backed motions by the defence lawyers.
The judge refused two motions by defence lawyers to call witnesses including investigators, experts and journalists, and to hold a fresh psychological and linguistic evaluation of the content of the women’s protest.
The first appeal hearing on October 1 was unexpectedly adjourned when Samutsevich announced she was firing her lawyer and said she did not agree with the defence team’s view of the case.
The women’s lawyers, who worked as a tight-knit team, said Samutsevich is under pressure from friends and expressed concern that she may break the unity of the group by pleading guilty in the hope of receiving a milder sentence.
But Samutsevich is now represented by Irina Khrunova and Farit Murtazin — two high-profile lawyers with a track record of successfully defending opposition activists and journalists.
Khrunova was present in court along with Samutsevich’s former lawyer Violetta Volkova who remains part of the defence team.
Before the appeal process started, a call by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for the trio to be given a suspended sentence and released as well as signs of mercy from the powerful Russian Orthodox Church had given rise to some hopes among their supporters.
However the lawyers have cautioned that a shortening of the verdict rather than an acquittal is the most they can hope for, a prediction that Putin’s latest comments did little to dispell.
In a special film made by state-owned NTV and aired on Putin’s 60th birthday Sunday, the Russian leader laughed when the interviewer asked him about Pussy Riot, calling the band “talented” for making everyone repeat its “indecent” name.
Pressed to comment on the court’s decision to jail the three women, Putin said: “It was right to arrest them and it was right that the court took the decision that it did.
He added that the band’s anti-Putin song “Virgin Mary, redeem us of Putin!” was added to the viral video of their performance to divert attention from the actual stunt in the church to politics and make Pussy Riot famous.
”I didn’t have anything to do with it,” Putin said about the women’s sentence. “They wanted it and they got it.”
But Tolokonnikova’s lawyer Mark Feigin said Putin’s remarks displayed extensive knowledge of the case documents, which only proved his personal involvement.
“He is clearly interested, involved, and regularly informed on the case,” he told AFP ahead of the hearing. “He demonstrated what he thinks about the court judgement without waiting for the appeal to decide whether or not it was fair.”
Under Russian law, an appeal contests both the conviction itself and the length of the punishment.
The women have been held in a Moscow prison since their March arrest and will only be transferred to a prison camp if the conviction is confirmed by the Moscow city court.
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