A Russian court today ruled that Yekaterina Samutsevich should be freed because guards threw her out of Moscow’s main cathedral before she could even remove her guitar from its case to play in protest of Vladimir Putin.

Samutsevich, 30, is the oldest member of the Pussy Riot punk rock group, and today she had her conviction for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred overturned by a trio of judges.

The other two members convicted of the same offence, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alekhina, 24, were not as lucky. Samutsevich’s sentence was suspended.

The appeal had been postponed last week after Samutsevich got rid of her legal team and hired another lawyer.

Tolokonnikova said, as the hearing began:

We cannot admit to charges of religious hatred. Please overturn the conviction.

Alekhina said their actions had nothing to do with “religious hatred,” and that they were clearly embarking on a political protest.

We are not militant Atheists. We are against cutting crosses, we are against stealing icons, we are against pouring ink on icons. Do not confuse us with that which we had nothing to do with, which is despicable on both the part of the legislature and those journalists who do so.

The Telegraph reported that this “appeared to be referring to a wave of vandalism that struck church property in the aftermath of their conviction, including a the chainsawing of an Orthodox cross and memorial to victims of Soviet oppression in Kiev by a member of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen.”

The three were arrested earlier this year after performing an anti-Putin “punk prayer” inside Moscow’s main cathedral. Tolokonnikova Maria Alekhina still face up to two years in prison.

The ruling surprised many, including Samutsevich’s father Stanislav Samutsevich, who said after the ruling:

What happiness! But what a shame about the other girls – they don’t deserve such a harsh punishment.

[Source: BBC]