On Monday, Russian authorities had arrested hundreds of protesters jut outside a courthouse where a trial convicted seven rallyists for violent acts against police at a 2012 anti-Putin rally, The Associated Press said in a report.
Prior to the conviction of the defendants in the trial, they submitted not guilty pleas and laid the blame on police for the clashes that happened at the said rally. The rally, said AP, was to protest the election of Vladimir Putin as the Russian president for the third time. The clashes reportedly happened right after police restricted access to Bolotnaya Square on the eve of Putin's inauguration.
It was noted in the trial against the seven defendants that the evidence used were mainly footage and testimonies coming from the police, AP said. One video showed Yaroslav Belousov, one of the defendants, bending down to pick up what appeared to be a small, yellow object. Prosecutors insisted that Belousov held a billiard ball and had a policeman claiming in the trial that he got hurt, despite the fact that he left the fray ten seconds before Belousov tossed the object, the news wire agency said.
According to the court verdict, the defendants will be serving up to four years in prison.
TIME said opposition figure Alexei Navalny and members of the anti-government punk band, Pussy Riot, were among the many who protested outside the Kremlin in an unsanctioned rally. The protesters had chanted the words "maidan", which was referred to the anti-government protests in Ukraine that led President Viktor Yanukovych to step down from his post as the country's chief, and "shame."According to Moscow police, a total of 420 protestors were detained.
AP said that the support for the 2012 Moscow protest was resounding, as national media also used images from the bloody exchange between protesters and police alongside the more recent clash between rallyists and authorities in Ukraine.
Last week, a Rossiya television anchor commented, "With the events on the Maidan as a background, it's even more obvious what all of this could have led to, had it not been for the government's clear, tough response."
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Anastasia Dukhanina got her sentence suspended. She is currently under house arrest and is awaiting trial, AP said.
