One member of Pussy Riot is free, but two remain in prison. Today, an appellate court in Moscow set one of the three jailed Pussy Riot members free, but upheld the two-year prison sentences of the other two women, according to the New York Times.

A three-judge panel of Moscow City Court upheld the guilty verdict against all three women on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, for their anti-Putin “punk prayer” protest performance in a Moscow cathedral.

Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sat in a glass-walled cage in a court in Moscow on Wednesday. Via the New York Times.

All three women said that they committed no crime, and that they were motivated by political opposition to Putin and anger at Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I for supporting Putin. They said they were not motivated by religious hatred.

The judges ordered the immediate release of one Pussy Riot member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, based on her lawyer’s argument that she had a lesser role in the protest performance. She was seized and taken out of the cathedral before she had the chance to perform.

Yekaterina Samutsevich after being released from jail on Wednesday in Moscow. Via the New York Times.

The two other women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Maria Alyokhina, 24, were ordered to serve the remainder of their original sentences: two years in a prison colony. Their lawyers said they will continue to appeal.

Free Pussy Riot!

Images from the www.nytimes.com.