MOSCOW, September 7 – RAPSI. The European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered Russia on Thursday to pay a total of 7,000 euros to three opposition activists who complained of their detention over mass protests in 2012 in central Moscow.

The complaints were lodged by Artem Savelov, Leonid Kovyazin, and Ilya Gushchin in 2013. 

The applicants alleged that "their arrest and pre-trial detention was not based on relevant and sufficient reasons and, as regards the second applicant, that his appeals against his detention were examined with unacceptable delays", according to court records. 

Over 400 people were arrested and scores were injured in the authorized Bolotnaya Square protest that turned violent in May 2012. Dozens were later charged with inciting mass riots and battery against law enforcement officers.

Leonid Razvozzhayev and Sergei Udaltsov were sentenced to 4.5 years in prison each on charges of organizing mass protests. 

Other defendants in the case received prison terms ranging from suspended sentences to four years. Several defendants were pardoned; one is undergoing compulsory mental treatment.