MOSCOW, September 2 (RAPSI) – The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) plans to make its first ruling in the Bolotnaya Square protests case regarding one of the suspects on September 17, attorney Dmitry Agranovsky wrote on LiveJournal on Wednesday.

The European court has informed him that a decision was pending in the case of Leonid Kovyazin, a video cameraman and journalist working as a freelance correspondent for the independent weekly Kirov newspaper Vyatsky Nablyudatel (Vyatka Observer), who was arrested on September 5, 2012.

Agranovsky said petitions had been filed at the ECHR in defense of Vladimir Akimenkov, Yaroslav Belousov, Leonid Kovyazin, Denis Lutskevich, Stepan Zimin, Alexei Polikhovich, Leonid Razvozzhayev and Sergei Udaltsov.

In particular, the defense attorneys request 100,000 euros in compensation from Russia for persecuting the Bolotnaya Square suspects.

Public protests erupted on Bolotnaya Square on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s inauguration for a third presidential term in May 2012. The rally culminated in clashes between protesters and the police. Over 400 people were arrested and scores were injured when protesters briefly broke through police lines. Several criminal cases under Article 318 of the Criminal Code for using violence against officials were launched as a result.

On February 24, 2013, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court sentenced eight defendants in the Bolotnaya Square riot case to various terms, from a suspended sentence of three years and three months to four years in a penal colony. All the accused were found guilty of assaulting a police officer. Earlier, several other defendants were pardoned.

Ten of the inmates in this case were amnestied in late 2014 and early 2015, including Nikolai Kavkazsky, Maria Baronova, Leonid Kovyazin, Vladimir Akimenkov, Anastasia Rybachenko, Dmitry Altaichinov, Fyodor Bakhov, Alexander Kamensky, Rikhard Sobolev and Oleg Arkhipenkov. Amnesty was approved only for those who were not charged with violence against law enforcement officers.

In 2012, Maxim Luzyanin was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in this case, while Mikhail Kosenko, who was diagnosed with a mental disorder and released from liability for the charges, was ordered to undergo extended mental treatment. In June 2014, Kosenko was released from a mental hospital to continue treatment at an outpatient clinic.