MOSCOW, March 26 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court has upheld prison sentence for Dmitry Krepkin, a participant of the unauthorized rally in Moscow that was held exactly a year ago, on March 26, 2017, the press-service of the court has told RAPSI.

According to Krepkin’s lawyer Ilnur Sharapov, there are no current plans for appealing the sentence in Russian courts, but defense is going to file an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

On December 8, 2017, Krepkin was found guilty of assaulting a police officer at the rally and sentenced to 1.5 years in a penal colony. A prosecutor asked the court to sentence him to 3 years in prison. Defense in turn insisted on acquittal.

Earlier, several other men, Andrey Kosykh, Yury Kuliy, Alexander Shpakov and Stanislav Zimovets, and Aleksey Politikov have been convicted and sentenced for violence against law enforcement officers during the rally. Kosykh was sentenced to 4 years in prison, but later his term was reduced by 4 months. Kuliy has been given 8 months in a penal colony settlement. Shpakov received a 1.5-year prison sentence. Zimovets has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. A 2-year prison sentence given to Politikov has not taken effect yet.

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.