MOSCOW, October 23. /TASS/. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has prioritised appeals to the verdicts handed down on five defendants in the affair over riots staged on Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow in May 2012.

“The ECHR gave priority to appeals filed by Vladimir Akimenkov, Leonid Kovyazin, Denis Lutskevich, Stepan Zimin and Yaroslav Belousov and merged them in common court proceedings. Ten questions were sent to Russia to give a reply to them,” lawyer of a defendant Dmitry Agranovsky told TASS.

On February 24, Zamoskvoretsky court of Moscow sentenced eight Bolotnaya riot defendants to three years and three months in suspension up to four years in jail. Later Moscow City Court changed the term in jail for Belousov from 2.5 years to two years and three months. With due account of the term spent at detention center his term in custody expired on Thursday.

Criminal proceedings over mass riots on Bolotnaya Square in central Moscow were opened on May 6, 2012, when an opposition rally permitted by state authorities grew in clashes with police. More than 400 were detained for illegal action, more than 30 policemen and several dozens of people were wounded. The criminal case was opened for mass riots and use of violence against law enforcers.

Over 30 people were defendants in the Bolotnaya riot case.