MOSCOW, July 3 (RAPSI) – Organizers of the illegal opposition rally of July 27, 2019, including Alexey Navalny and Ilya Yashin, on Friday were jointly ordered to pay another 3.3 million rubles ($47,000) to the Moscow Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry, RAPSI reported from the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow.

The court granted the claim in part. The plaintiff sought to collect about 4.3 million rubles (about $70,000) from opposition figures Alexey Navalny, Ilya Yashin, Lyubov Sobol, Vladimir Milov, Georgy Alburov, Alexander Solovyev and Oleg Stepanov.

Police insisted that the said funds were spent to enhance security during illegal rallies in central Moscow.

Earlier on Friday, the court recovered over 4.6 million rubles (over $65,000) jointly from organizers of the unauthorized opposition rally held on August 3, 2019, Lyubov Sobol and Georgy Alburov, in favor of the Moscow Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry.

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.