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Russian court sentences March protest participant to 2.5 years in jail

Stanislav Zimovets was found guilty of violent actions against police

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. Moscow’s Tverskoy district court has sentenced to 30 months in jail Stanislav Zimovets, who was found guilty of violent actions against police during the March 26 unauthorized rally in Moscow, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

"The court ruled to find Zimovets guilty and sentence him to two and a half years in jail in a general regime colony," the judge said.

The court found out that Zimovets, who took part in an unauthorized mass event on Pushkinskaya Square in downtown Moscow, "threw a brick at a member of Rosgvardiya (National Guard), causing pain to him."

During the hearing of arguments, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Zimovets to three years in jail. The defendant pleaded not guilty. His lawyers said the sentence was incompatible with the gravity of the crime and evidence presented by the prosecutors.

The Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Department for High-Profile Investigation is investigating a criminal case of the unlawful actions by participants of an unauthorized mass event on Pushkinskaya Square in downtown Moscow and adjacent territory on March 26 on three counts of Russia’s Criminal Code: article 213 ("Hooliganism"), article 317 (Attempt on the Life of a Law Enforcement Officer") and article 318 ("The Use of Violence against a Representative of Authorities").

Six persons were arrested as part of the criminal case. The investigators said Zimovets, Alexander Shpakov, Yury Kuliy, Andrey Kosyh, Dmitry Krepkin and Dmitry Borisov used violence against law enforcement agents. In May, Kuliy and Shpakov were sentenced to eight months and 1.5 years in jail, respectively.