MOSCOW, July 20 (RAPSI, Yevgeniya Sokolova) – The Tverskoy District Court on Thursday sentenced a participant of the unauthorized March 26 rally in Moscow, Stanislav Zimovets, to 2.5 years in prison for the attack on a police officer, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Prosecutor earlier demanded a 3-year prison term for the defendant.

According to prosecution, Zimovets threw a stone at a police officer during the rally. As a result, lieutenant-colonel Vladimir Kotenov received an injury. Police seized a nonlethal pistol and a knife during his arrest.

Zimovets has not pleaded guilty in full.

Earlier, the court sentenced two other participants of the rally Yury Kuliy and Alexander Shpakov to 8 months in penal colony settlement and 1.5 years in prison respectively. Kuliy and Shpakov have pleaded guilty to the use of violence against a representative of authority.

According to the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry for Moscow, about 500 people were arrested on March 26 during the unauthorized rally. Overall number of people present in the area at the time was estimated at as high as 8,000 people. One of the police officers received injuries, a criminal case was launched over this incident.

The Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, arrested during the rally, claimed that Moscow authorities refused to greenlight the rally in the city’s center and proposed alternative areas only a day before it was to take place. Navalny said that in this case Russian legislation allows organizers to hold an event at the area, which was listed first.