In October, Alekhina and band member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were transferred to separate regional prisons [JURIST report] generally reserved for dangerous criminals to serve their two-year sentences. Earlier in October, the band's third member, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was freed on appeal [JURIST report] because she did not actually participate in the protest song, and vowed to take the band's case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] on charges that the Russian government had illegally detained them and also violated the rock group's right to free speech. Samutsevich had previously asked for a delay in the proceedings after firing the lawyer [JURIST report] that had been representing the band as a whole. All three members were given two-year prison sentences after they were convicted [JURIST report] in August of hooliganism in connection with "guerrilla performance" of a protest song in February at the altar of downtown Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. Since the beginning of the trial, the group's lawyers and human rights groups have said the charges were politically motivated [JURIST report] by Putin to discredit his opposition.