![\"Pussy](\"https:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Ekaterina-Samutsevich-300x199.jpg\")
Pussy Riot member Ekaterina Samutsevich sits in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, August 2012. Maria Pleshkova | Demotix<\/p><\/div>\n
Samutsevich — also known as Katya — believes everyone has social and political responsibility,<\/em>\u00a0and that artists have the power to make \u201cpeople understand problems they couldn\u2019t see before.\u201d And exercising that responsibility is how Katya got in trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n In a week where her comrades were sent to harsh prison camps in remote Russian regions, Samutsevich gave this exclusive telephone interview to Elena Vlasenko, Index on Censorship\u2019s Russia correspondent, and assured her Pussy Riot is here to stay.<\/em><\/p>\n INDEX: \u00a0You were given a suspended sentence on appeal\u00a0after you alone switched lawyers. The judge’s decision<\/a>\u00a0hung on the fact you were ejected from the cathedral before being able to perform but your friends remain in prison. Are the rumours about\u00a0a\u00a0split in the group true?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ekaterina Samutsevich:<\/strong>\u00a0All the talk about divisions in Pussy Riot are the authorities\u2019 attempt to spin the situation. We definitely didn\u2019t expect my release on probation, [we] thought the sentence would not change. Anyway, this is a victory for all of us … one person out of three is released, or at least on a suspended sentence. Nadya and Masha hugged me and congratulated [me] on this.<\/p>\n INDEX: Why did you switch lawyers? Who disliked your previous \u00a0lawyer Violetta Volkova most — you or the judge?<\/strong><\/p>\n ES:<\/strong>\u00a0Prisoners sometimes change lawyers several times per trial, and that\u2019s ok. I don\u2019t really want to emphasise it, like some media do, that is why I prefer not to comment on the issue.<\/p>\n INDEX: How did you say good<\/strong>bye to Nadya and Masha? Are you managing to stay in touch?<\/strong><\/p>\n ES:<\/strong>\u00a0We wished all the best to each other. We used to write each other letters almost every day before their departure to the penal colonies, but now it\u2019s hard to communicate.<\/p>\n INDEX: You\u00a0filed an appeal<\/a> to European Court of Human Rights saying your prosecution and detention violated article 10 of the European convention<\/a>\u00a0— free expression — and article 3 — prohibition of torture. Why article 3?<\/strong><\/p>\n ES:<\/strong>\u00a0We consider ourselves innocent and the very fact of our detention illegal.\u00a0The court obviously wanted us exhausted. We were woken up every day at 6am and taken to the court at about 9am, no matter what time the proceedings started. Sometimes we had to wait several hours in a room under convoy\u00a0<\/strong>before we finally got to the courtroom. The same waiting happened after the proceedings. We spent several hours under convoy waiting for a car, and another hour — in front of the pretrial prison gate. We entered the cell at about 1am. The next day we had to get up at\u00a06am; every day of the proceedings would be the same.\u00a0Before the proceedings we had to come to the court every morning to familiarise ourselves with the case … We spent two and a half weeks on this\u00a0<\/em>schedule.<\/p>\n As a rule, if a case isn\u2019t big — normally criminal cases run to tens of volumes, and\u00a0ours was only seven\u00a0—<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>the court holds proceedings once a week. But not this time. From our perspective, the rush was deliberate so that we were too tired to understand what was going on during the proceedings. I was so exhausted once we had to call the ambulance. And the doctors had to give Masha an injection as her blood sugar level dropped dramatically and she was awfully dizzy.<\/p>\n It was torture for us.<\/p>\n INDEX: One could see how physical and rude\u00a0the bailiffs were<\/a> to you after the judge ruled. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.indexoncensorship.org\/newsite02may\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/pussy-riot.jpg\")