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Bolotnaya Square riot case defendants to make final statements

Prosecutor demanded from five to six years of prison terms for all the eight defendants

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MOSCOW, February 05. /ITAR-TASS/. The defendants in the case over riots on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in May 2012 will make their final statements at Moscow's Zamoskvorechye court on Wednesday.

The case was opened after the May 6, 2012 riot, when a rally sanctioned by the authorities escalated to clashes with police. More than 400 people were detained and 30 police and several dozen protesters were injured.

The case is being reviewed against Yaroslav Belousov, Stepan Zimin, Artyom Savelov, Alexei Polikhovich, Denis Lutskevich, Alexandra Dukhanina (Naumova), Andrei Barabanov and Sergei Krivov.

The prosecutor demanded from five to six years of prison terms for all the eight defendants.

Initially, there were some 30 defendants in the case.

After the amnesty marking the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, criminal proceedings were dropped against four defendants: Maria Baronova, Nikola Kavkazsky, Vladimir Akimenko and Leonid Kovyazin.

Maxim Luzyanin, a defendant in the case, has already been convicted and another defendant, Mikhail Kosenko, has been sent for compulsory treatment.

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