* Band's jail sentences sparked outcry in the West
* Russia says criticism was politically-motivated
* First appeals hearing due to be heard on Oct. 1
MOSCOW, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry
Medvedev said on Wednesday he thought that three female members
of punk band Pussy Riot who were sentenced to two years in jail
last month for a political protest in a Moscow cathedral should
be freed.
Medvedev, who was president for four years until May ,
a ppeared t o be trying to disassociate himself from the jail
terms which were condemned as excessive by the West and rights
groups at home, as well as by liberal Russians.
When president, Medvedev styled himself as a liberal
reformer, and though he handed the presidency back to Vladimir
Putin he has made it clear he wants to remain in politics and
perhaps even return to the presidency one day.
The three band members - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria
Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich - were convicted of
hooliganism motivated by religious hatred on Aug. 17 after
belting out a profanity-laced song criticising Putin on the
altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February.
They have been in jail since March and their appeal is due
to start being heard on Oct. 1.
"The prolongation of their incarceration in the conditions
of jail seems to me to be unproductive," Medvedev said in
televised remarks. "A suspended sentence, taking into account
time they have already spent (in jail), would be entirely
sufficient," he added.
However, Medvedev criticised the women, saying he was
"sickened by what they did, by their looks, by the hysteria
which followed what had happened".
He said prison is "very, very strict" punishment as a rule.
Medvedev emphasised he was expressing his personal view only
and was not seeking to influence the case.
The band members had faced up to seven years in prison, but
Putin said during the trial that they should not be judged "too
harshly" and prosecutors subsequently requested three-year
sentences; they were sentenced to two years each in the end.
In a television interview last week, Putin declined to
comment on whether he believed the sentences were fitting,
saying he was not interfering in the case.
But he suggested the band had forced its "indecent" name
into public discourse and said abuses committed against the
Russian Orthodox Church and other faiths in the Soviet era meant
"the state is obliged to protect the feelings of believers".