From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/20/pussy-riot-row-legal-team
Yekaterina Samutsevich claims original lawyers cared more about fame than clients, leading to trade of accusations
Miriam Elder in Moscow
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 20 November 2012
A row has erupted around the jailed punk band Pussy Riot, with the group’s members and supporters trading accusations of theft, lies and Kremlin collaboration with their lawyers.
Bad blood has been simmering between the women and their legal team since the end of the Pussy Riot trial, which saw three of members found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their performance of an anti-Putin “punk prayer” inside a Moscow cathedral. Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were sentenced to two years in prison. Samutsevich was later released on appeal after ditching the group’s legal team for a new lawyer.
In a lengthy interview published on Monday, she accused the lawyers – Mark Feygin, Nikolai Polozov and Violetta Volkova – of failing to carry out their legal duties, caring more about their personal fame and careers inside the Russian opposition. She also accused Feygin, a former Duma deputy, of forging papers to register the Pussy Riot brand while the three women were still in pre-trial detention and of failing to return her passport to her.
Samutsevich, 30, was released after an appeal hearing on 10 October. Alyokhina, 24, and Tolokonnikova, 23, have been sent to distant prison colonies to serve the remainder of their terms.
“Our lawyers gave more speeches about the situation in Russia [during the trial],” Samutsevich told Lenta.ru. “It turned out we were like lawyers, and they were like artists, like co-authors of the trial. They were not lawyers.”
The trial in August was marked by procedural violations and absurdities, hearings were often interrupted by shouting sessions.
“We’re not masochists and we don’t want to sit in jail,” Samutsevich said, responding to earlier statements by Feygin that the women preferred to serve time in jail “and emerge like heroes”.
Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/20/pussy-riot-row-legal-team
