MOSCOW, September 4 (RAPSI) - Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court on Wednesday sentenced Yevgeny Kovalenko, who had thrown a refuse bin at a National Guard officer at an unauthorized rally in Moscow, to 3.5 years behind bars, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The man was convicted of use of violence against a representative of authority.

According to case papers, he threw a refuse bin at a National Guard officer and kicked a police lieutenant.

Prosecutors earlier asked a 5-year imprisonment for him.

Protest actions began in Moscow in mid-July after election commissions denied registration of certain opposition members as candidates for the Moscow City Duma elections reasoning that documents submitted by them contained numerous violations.

The first unauthorized rally took place hear the Moscow City Election Commission’s building on July 14 and looked like a provocation, according to law experts.

Unauthorized rallies in support of candidates seeking to become lawmakers of the Moscow State Duma but refused registration by the Election Commission were also held on July 27 and August 3 in central Moscow. Over 1,000 people were arrested for various violations as a result.

Following the 27 July rally, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case over mass riots. Investigators believe that the protest action was held with the use of force against representatives of authority.

Several well-known opposition figures including Alexey Navalny, Dmitry Gudkov, Ilya Yashin were arrested and put in detention for alleged organization of an unauthorized rally.

On August 10, an authorized rally in support of unregistered election candidates took place in Moscow and gathered as many as 25,000 participants, according to the police statistics.