A member of Russian punk band Pussy Riot has been freed on appeal, but a Moscow court upheld prison sentences for two others over their protest in the city's main cathedral.
Yekaterina Samutsevich walked free from Moscow City Court on Wednesday after six months behind bars but the appeal judge who suspended her two-year sentence said fellow band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina should serve out their terms.
The three were found guilty in August of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for their anti-Kremlin protest.
In emotional statements during the appeal hearing, the women said they had not meant to offend the religious faithful but were criticising President Valdimir Putin, who opponents say has cracked down on dissent since starting a new term in May.
Yekaterina Samutsevich's lawyer told the court that she had not performed the protest because she had been stopped and led away before it took place.
The case had sparked an international outcry, with Western governments and pop star Madonna condemning the sentences as disproportionate, a view not widely shared in Russia where public opinion was shocked by the protest.
Defence lawyers, relatives of the women and rights activists including the chairman of Putin's own presidential human rights council, Mikhail Fedotov, welcomed Samutsevich's release but criticised the split ruling.
Mr Fedotov told Reuters that the actions of the three were minor hooliganism, for which they should have got 15 days detention. He said it would be reasonable to release all the women.
