A Moscow court has delayed an appeal hearing by jailed anti-Kremlin punk band until 10 October over procedural concerns.
Three members of the group – Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30 – are appealing against their two-year sentence on hooliganism charges for performing a song criticising Vladimir Putin in a Moscow cathedral.
As the hearing began on Monday, Samutsevich said she no longer desired the services of one of her lawyers, Violetta Volkova, a member of the outspoken legal trio that has been representing the women. The hearing will resume next week after Samutsevich has found a new lawyer, the judge said.
Pussy Riot lawyer Nikolai Polozov speculated that Samutsevich had been pressured into rejecting her lawyer in order to delay the hearing.
The case against Pussy Riot split Russian society and highlighted the crackdown on freedoms since Putin returned to the presidency in May. Pussy Riot formed late last year as street opposition to Putin grew, and were arrested in March after performing an anti-Putin “punk prayer” in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
They were sentenced to two years in prison in August after a Moscow court found them guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The women insist their performance was a political act designed to highlight the suspect ties between Putin and the Russian Orthodox church.
They have expressed little hope that their sentence will be overturned, but their lawyers and supporters say there is a chance it will be diminished.
Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, has said he thinks they should be released, while the Russian Orthodox church has called for them to be released if they repent. Putin, whom Pussy Riot accuse of orchestrating the case against them, has remained silent on the case since sentencing in August.