Pussy Riot appeal moved

A Russian court yesterday adjourned to October 10 the appeal of three female members of punk band Pussy Riot against their two year prison camp sentence after one of the women renounced her lawyer.

The trio had been found guilty in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for storming into Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in February and staging a balaclava-clad performance of a song mocking President Vladimir Putin.

In fact they performed a “punk prayer” with the title “Virgin Mary, Redeem Us of Putin”.

In stormy scenes outside the Moscow city court, police detained several supporters of the women as well as some anti-Pussy Riot activists who came to the courthouse with three inflatable sex dolls in balaclavas signed with the names of the defendants. Defendant Yekaterina Samutsevich unexpectedly told the court she wanted to replace her lawyer due to differences of opinion over the case and the judge agreed an adjournment until next week.

Her legal team seemed to be at a loss to explain the move after Samutsevich, 30, appeared smiling and chatting with fellow defendants Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, in their courtroom glass cage surrounded by security guards.

The lawyers denied they were trying to delay the case, which has galvanised the opposition and been taken up by world figures ranging from Myanmar democracy icon Aung Sang Suu Kyi to Madonna.

The women are currently being held in a Moscow detention centre and will only be transferred to a prison camp – where the conditions could be more severe – once the appeal verdict has been delivered.