MOSCOW, August 8 (RAPSI, Nikolay Merkulov) - Dmitry Krepkin, who had participated in the unauthorized anticorruption rally in Moscow on March 26, pleaded not guilty to assaulting a police officer, RAPSI reported from the Tverskoy District Court on Tuesday.

Krepkin’s detention was earlier extended until September 8. Investigation into the activist was completed in late June.

According to investigators, the defendant resisted police officers and kicked one of them.

Two other rally participants, Yury Kuliy and Alexander Shpakov have been already sentenced for violence against a law enforcement officer. Kuliy was given 8 months in a penal colony settlement. Shpakov received a 1.5-year prison sentence. They have pleaded guilty.

The Interior Ministry reported that about 500 people had been arrested during the unauthorized rally on March 26. 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.

According to the Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny, arrested during the rally, 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.