Pussy Riot Band Member Sues Ex-Lawyer for Libel

Aug. 20, 2013

A member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot has sued her former lawyer for libel and is seeking 2 million rubles ($61,000) in damages, a Russian court said Tuesday.

Yekaterina Samutsevich wants her former attorney Violetta Volkova to refute what she claims is a libelous statement that "negatively characterizes her personality, degrades her honor and dignity," according to a statement by the Elektrostal city court in Moscow Region posted on the court's website.

Samutsevich and fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were sentenced to two years in jail last August for their February 2012 "punk prayer" in Moscow's largest cathedral after an internationally condemned trial. The band members, who were represented by Volkova and two other lawyers, rejected the hooliganism charges as "absurd" and "illegal."

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