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Moscow court hands July 27 demonstrator one-year sentence

The prosecutor demanded that he be sentenced to 3.5 years in a colony

MOSCOW, December 6. /TASS/. Moscow’s Tverskoy Court handed Nikita Chirtsov, a 22-year-old programmer, who took part in an unauthorized rally in Moscow on July 27, a one-year sentence for attacking a police officer, TASS reported from the courtroom.

"The court hereby orders to sentence Chirtsov to one year in a general penal colony," Judge Yelena Bulgakova read out the verdict. The court included the time that he has spent in jail since September 1 to his incarceration sentence.

The judge said that she took into consideration mitigating circumstances under Chirtsov’s case: his aged grandmother, the defendant’s assistance to a charitable organization that offers help to cancer-stricken patients and the fact that he had apologized to the victim and is willing to pay compensation for any damages. Still, the judge concluded that Chirtsov could only be rehabilitated by being isolated from society. The prosecutor demanded that he be sentenced to 3.5 years in a colony.

According to the testimony provided by Chirtsov that was read out during the verdict, he found himself at the July 27 protest rally by chance when he was walking in downtown Moscow, he heard loud screams and saw a crowd of people but did not understand why they had gathered there. He said that he saw the police cordon closing behind him and tried to escape. The judge said that Chirtsov’s guilt has been proven by the testimony of the victim, video recordings and the results of the forensic tests.

Chirtsov is charged under Part 1 Section 318 of the Russian Criminal Code ("The use of violence against an official"). According to investigators, he pushed a police officer during the July 27 events, and ended up injuring him. Minsk police detained him since he was on a wanted list sought by Russia. Belarusian authorities ordered him to leave the country, and he did so by flying to Moscow without assistance. Law enforcement authorities detained him the next day.

Moscow’s Lefortovsky Court earlier fined Chirtsov for taking part in an unauthorized rally. He was found guilty of an administrative violation stipulated under Part 5 Section 20.2 ("Violation by a public event participant of the prescribed order for carrying out a meeting, rally, demonstration, march or picketing").