MOSCOW, June 15 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow has fined Russian activist Ildar Dadin 20,000 rubles ($348) for public reading of the Constitution on Red Square, the court’s press office told RAPSI on Thursday.

The activist was found guilty of violating the procedure of organizing or holding a meeting.

Dadin was arrested along with several other activists in central Moscow on May 12. According to case papers, they were holding a meeting at the place not intended for public actions.

Earlier, a court in the Moscow Region ordered Russia’s Finance Ministry to pay Dadin 2.2 million rubles (about $38,300) for unlawful prosecution. The court granted the activist’s lawsuit in part.

Dadin, who was convicted and later acquitted of numerous violations of protest laws, sought a 5 million-ruble (about $87,000 at the current exchange rate) compensation for moral damages inflicted by unlawful prosecution as well as staying in detention and under house arrest for two years.

Dadin was sentenced on December 7, 2015. Initially he received a 3-year prison term. The Moscow City Court later reduced the sentence to 2.5 years. He was acquitted on February 22, 2017, when the Supreme Court’s Presidium overturned his 2.5-year prison sentence and ruled to release him. The court held that criminal proceedings against Dadin should be dismissed because of the absence of elements of a crime in his actions.

The Supreme Court explained that the article of the Russian Criminal Code prohibiting violations of protest laws excludes possibility of criminal prosecution if at the time of crime there were no active court rulings regarding administrative liability of a defendant. These rulings must be issued at least three times in the period of 180 days.