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Bolotnaya Square Protest Rally Participant Sentenced to 2.5 Years

bloknot.ru

An opposition activist was sentenced Tuesday to 2.5 years in prison for hitting police officers with an umbrella during the anti-Kremlin protests on Bolotnaya Ploshchad in 2012, the RBC news agency reported.

Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky Court found Ivan Nepomnyashchikh guilty of participating in mass public unrests and using violence against police officers, court spokeswoman Julia Petrova told RBC.

Nepomnyashchikh refused to plead guilty and said he had no intention to commit the crime during the protest, RBC said.

Nepomnyashchikh, 25, a an engineer, was detained and placed under house arrest in February.

Large-scale anti-Kremlin protests took place on Moscow's Bolotnaya Square in May 2012 and resulted in clashes with the police. More than 30 people were subjected to the criminal investigation, and more than 10 of them sentenced to jail terms.

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