MOSCOW, June 19 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova) – The Moscow City Court had upheld a sentence given to Yury Kuliy, who is to spend 8 months in a penal colony settlement for attacking a police officer at the unauthorized rally in Moscow on March 26, RAPSI learnt at the court’s press office on Monday.

By its decision, the court dismissed an appeal against an earlier ruling of the Moscow Tverskoy District Court.

Kuliy has been charged with attacking a police officer by gripping his arm. The case was examined under a special procedure, since the defendant had pleaded guilty.

Earlier, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow sentenced another participant of rally in Moscow, Alexander Shpakov, to 1.5 years in a penal colony for violence against representative of authority. According to investigators, Shpakov punched a police officer in the face trying to open a door of a bus containing people arrested during the unauthorized rally on March 26.

According to the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry for Moscow, about 500 people were arrested on March 26 during the unauthorized rally. Overall number of people present in the area at the time was estimated at as high as 8,000 people. One of the police officers received injuries, a criminal case was launched over this incident.

According to the Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, arrested during the rally, Moscow authorities refused to greenlight the rally in the city’s center and proposed alternative areas only a day before it was to take place. Navalny said that in this case Russian legislation allows organizers to hold an event at the area, which was listed first.