MOSCOW, January 22 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Metro state enterprise added to its lawsuit against opposition figures Lyubov Sobol and Georgy Alburov a list of metro stations where more employees had to work because of an unauthorized rally on August 3, RAPSI reported from the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow on Wednesday.

For this reason, the hearing was adjourned until February 17. The court granted time to the defendants to read the documents.

Earlier, the Moscow Metro said that many employees got called in to work on their weekend because of the rally to ensure the passengers’ safety. The enterprise estimated its damages at 311,000 rubles.

The defendants in turn claimed that the traffic flow augmentation was meant to generate profits to the Moscow Metro.

In December, the court ruled to recover over 1.5 million rubles (about $24,000) in favor of the state-financed entity Autoroads and 657,000 rubles (about $10,500) in favor of the capital’s public transport authority Mosgortrans from Sobol and Alburov as part of similar suits.

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.