By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya
MOSCOW, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The sole member of anti-Kremlin punk group Pussy Riot freed on appeal has taken her case to the European Court of Human Rights, her lawyer said on Friday, accusing Russia of violating her right to freedom of speech and illegally detaining her.
Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, was one of three band members sentenced to two years in jail in August for belting out a profanity-laced song against President Vladimir Putin in a cathedral in a case that sparked an international outcry.
She was freed on appeal on Oct. 10 after six months behind bars after her lawyer successfully argued she had not actually taken part in the protest because she had been stopped and led away before it took place.
Irina Khrunova, a lawyer acting on her behalf, told Reuters on Friday that Samutsevich had lodged a complaint with the Strasbourg court claiming her rights had been violated during the six months she spent in pre-trial detention.
"Her rights were violated when she wasn't given food or (allowed to) sleep," said Khrunova. "She was held in a small room without being fed for hours."
A defiant Samutsevich said in a recent interview that Pussy Riot had "achieved more than our goal" by igniting a public debate about the close ties between the Russian state and the Orthodox Church, whose spiritual leader has likened Putin's rule to "a miracle of God."
She also said the trial had been an ordeal, with she and her fellow band members roused in their cells daily at 5 a.m. after returning to jail at 1 a.m. the previous night. "It was constant stress, constantly being under guard, handcuffed," she told Reuters.
The two other band members - Maria Alyokhina, 24, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22 - remain in jail after a Moscow court upheld their prison sentences, a ruling Putin said they had deserved.
The trio was found guilty of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after performing a song asking the Virgin Mary to "throw Putin out" on the altar of Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral in February.
The protest prompted accusations of blasphemy from the Orthodox Church and acerbic criticism from Putin, but sparked an outcry from Western governments and pop stars, including Madonna, who condemned the sentences as disproportionate.
However, the altar protest was offensive to many back in Russia, which is legally a secular state. (Editing by Andrew Osborn)
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