The freed member of the anti-Putin punk band Pussy Riot Yekaterina Samutsevich has filed a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for violations of her freedom of speech, lawless criminal persecution and groundless arrest, Kommersant daily newspaper reported on Friday.

"Yekaterina Samutsevich's lawyer Irina Khrunova wrote to the ECHR that "even a suspended sentence for expressing opinion" is illegal and violates article 10 of the European convention which guarantees freedom of speech," the paper wrote, citing Samutsevich's letter to the ECHR.
In the letter, Khrunova adds that the Russian courts have also violated the Convention's prohibitions of torture.

"Court sessions lasted for whole days, the court took breaks which lasted only 230 minutes. At the same the applicant was deprived of the opportunity to eat, drink, and sleep well. To get to the Khamovnicheskiy court in time, she had to wake up at 5 or 6 am," Kommersant cited the letter.
Khrunova said that a final and detailed complaint will be submitted to the human rights court by the end of the year.

Yekaterina Samutsevich was released from prison during an appeal session last week. The verdict against the three members of Pussy Riot was announced on August 17 when the court sentenced them to 2.5 years in prison. They were found guilty of "hooliganism aimed at spreading religious hatred" during their punk-prayer performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February 2012.

The court ruled that the two other Pussy Riot members, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina will have to serve the rest of their sentence.
Lawyers for the arrested women also said they would file complaints to the ECHR.