MOSCOW, August 9 (RAPSI) – Participant of the unauthorized March 26 rally in Moscow, Andrey Kosykh, on Wednesday was sentenced to 4 years in prison for attacking police officers, RAPSI reported from the Tverskoy District Court.

A prosecutor demanded a 4.5-year prison sentence for Kosykh. The defendant earlier pleaded guilty.

On Tuesday, the court began hearing the case against another rally participant, Dmitry Krepkin. He pleaded not guilty to assaulting a policeman.

Three other men, Yury Kuliy, Alexander Shpakov and Stanislav Zimovets, have been already sentenced for violence against law enforcement officers. Kuliy was given 8 months in a penal colony settlement. Shpakov received a 1.5-year prison sentence. They have pleaded guilty. Zimovets was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. He has not pleaded guilty in full.

The Interior Ministry reported that about 500 people had been arrested during the unauthorized rally on March 26. 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.