MOSCOW, October 30 (RAPSI) - In a statement issued by the Moscow Department of Russia's Interior Ministry, Moscow police dismissed the claim that police officers beat Magomed Rasulov, a man accused of having broken another officer's skull during a highly publicized marketplace brawl.

Russia's anti-migration sentiment reached its climax this summer when an incident at an open-air market in Moscow left a police officer with a broken skull. An officer was beaten up when he tried to arrest Rasulov's relative wanted on suspicion of trying to rape an under-aged girl.

In the scuffle that broke out, one of the police officers present, Anton Kudryashov, was hit over the head, reportedly with brass knuckles. The blow smashed his skull and he has since undergone brain surgery.

Moscow police launched a series of raids in the wake of the attack "to decriminalize Moscow marketplaces." The raids continued even after the detention of Rasulov, the man suspected of inflicting the blow. In total, more than 1,000 people were detained in the market raids, police said.

Rasulov was charged with the attempted murder of a police officer. He filed a claim with Moscow prosecutors alleging that police officers beat him in Moscow's Presnensky District Court on October 22, where Rasulov was brought for a pre-trial hearing, according to Izvestia daily.

According to the Interior Ministry's statement, the guards acted lawfully as Rasulov tried to beat one of the guards after the hearing was over.