Jailed Pussy Riot members change legal team

MOSCOW (AFP) - The two jailed members of Pussy Riot punk band have fired their legal team and hired the lawyer who helped free their band mate, the husband of one of the women said.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich were in August sentenced to two years in prison after they staged a balaclava-clad performance inside Moscow's main cathedral mocking President Vladimir Putin.

In October, an appeals court ordered the release of Samutsevich, but upheld the two-year prison camp sentences of Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, who are now serving their time in remote prison camps.

"Now the interests of Nadya and Masha will be defended by Irina Khrunova," said Tolokonnikova's husband Pyotr Verzilov, referring to the women by their nicknames.