MOSCOW, July 2 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Ostankinsky District Court on Tuesday found banker Alexander Lebedev guilty of battering businessman Sergei Polonsky during the filming of an NTV talk show in September 2011, and sentenced him to 150 hours of compulsory community service, a RAPSI correspondent reported from the court.

The banker plans to appeal the sentence, according to his attorney Henry Reznik.

“We will appeal the sentence and will make every effort to perform our professional duty. The defense attorneys will do everything possible to ensure that the truth triumphs,” Reznik said.

According to the attorney, the judges in the Moscow City Court, which will handle the appeal, “feel ashamed about the sentence, in which evidence is presented without any analysis, and the defense’s key evidence is left unconsidered.”

Reznik also said he is certain that the criminal case was initiated by people who wish to take revenge on his defendant.

The initial charges against Lebedev were made last September, more than a year after he punched Polonsky. The scuffle ensued after Polonsky accused Lebedev of spreading a rumor about a crack in the Moscow City skyscraper that his firm was building. Lebedev has been accused of hooliganism and battery. He has not admitted his guilt and said the charges are unsubstantiated. Lebedev said he punched Polonsky during the filming of an NTV talk show to neutralize his aggression.

On June 28, Polonsky appealed to the court to forgive Lebedev for punching him, according to a statement on his Facebook account.

Lebedev, 53, is the co-owner of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and the owner of The Independent. He supported a program to raise funds for opposition leader Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption project RosPil and has also made repeated claims about a persecution campaign against his businesses by the Russian government, a charge the authorities deny.

Late last December, Polonsky ended up in a fracas in Cambodia, when he and two other Russians allegedly attacked the six-person crew of a boat ferrying them from a Cambodian island to Sihanoukville. The sailors later dropped the charges.

Polonsky and two other Russian nationals, Konstantin Baglay and Alexander Karachinsky, were arrested on December 31. Baglay and Karachinsky were released on bail on March 11, 2013.

On April 3, Polonsky was released from the Cambodian prison but was restricted from leaving the country.

He later reportedly traveled to Israel. On June 20, lawyer Diana Tatosova said Polonsky is hoping to become an Israeli national.