MOSCOW, October 9 - RAPSI. The Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) will be hosting live text coverage of the hotly anticipated Pussy Riot appeal from Moscow City Court tomorrow October 10. The hearing will begin at 11am Moscow time (GMT + 4) and our coverage will start shortly beforehand at 10:45.
http://www.rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20121009/264910729.html

Domestic and international audiences alike were transfixed by this summer's hooliganism trial of three members of Russian punk rock collective Pussy Riot. The case attracted heated controversy worldwide and drew in advocates from both sides of the spectrum.

On February 21, five girls wearing brightly colored balaclavas stormed the altar of downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral to perform an anti-Putin protest song entitled, “Holy Sh*t.” The Pussy Riot girls have remained in pretrial detention since their early March arrest for an incident that some have lauded as a valid exercise of free speech, and that others have lambasted as blasphemous.

Judge Marina Syrova’s decision on August 17 to convict members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich of hooliganism and sentence them to two years in a prison stoked the flames, provoking a number of Western politicians and international organizations to question human rights and the Rule of Law in Russia.

The appeal was initially set to begin on October 1, but was postponed when Samutsevich unexpectedly stated at the start of the hearing her desire to sever ties with the group’s trial defense team and obtain new representation. She was granted the postponement in order to hire new attorneys and to provide them with sufficient time to read up on the case and devise a new strategy.