MOSCOW, June 26 (RAPSI) - All 12 suspects standing trial on charges of having organized riots in Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, have pleaded not guilty, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.
They also said they did not understand the charges brought against them. "Your honor, I have been libeled. This case has been fabricated and I do not even have a clear understanding of what I am being accused of," defendant Denis Lutskevich said.
"I am innocent because I have not done anything illegal," said Sergei Krivov, another defendant. "On the contrary, I see myself as a victim of abuse by the OMON special police and police chiefs who organized a massacre in Bolotnaya Square. I have been beaten. And now the policeman who hit me on the head with a baton tells me I hurt him."
The court will start considering the prosecution's evidence on Wednesday.
An authorized rally in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square ended in clashes between protesters and police. Over 400 people were arrested and scores were injured when protesters briefly broke through police lines.
The Investigative Committee opened a probe against nearly 30 people, including opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Leonid Razvozzhayev.
The criminal case was initiated after the "Anatomy of Protest 2" documentary film was shown on the NTV broadcasting network. The film claimed that the opposition was organizing a coup using funds from abroad and showed Left Front movement coordinator Udaltsov and his companions allegedly talking with Georgian politician Givi Targamadze, who at the time headed Georgia's Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee, and is said to have been involved in planning the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the mass riots in Belarus.