MOSCOW, November 7 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday upheld a lower court’s decision to extend detention of Nikita Chirtsov, who stands charged with using violence against a police officer at an unauthorized rally in Moscow on July 27, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The activist is denied release, as he requested in his appeal, and will remain in detention until January 27.

Investigators believe that the man gave the policeman pokes in the chest and shoulder.

After the protest action the defendant was fined 12,000 rubles ($185) for violating the order of a rally. Later, he fled to Minsk, Belarus, but was put on the wanted list.

He was arrested in Moscow in early September after he voluntary returned to Russia.