MOSCOW, July 24 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Thursday found Left Front leader Sergei Udaltsov and activist Leonid Razvozzhayev guilty of organizing riots in May 2012, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Earlier, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence Udaltsov and Razvozzhayev to 8 years in prison each.

Udaltsov has been accused of organizing riots and using violence against police during a rally. In October 2012, he was ordered not to leave the city. In February 2013, he was placed under house arrest, as he allegedly violated the former ruling. He has remained under house arrest ever since.

Udaltsov and Razvozzhayev along with other opposition figures were involved in the case concerning the planning of mass riots, which was initiated after the "Anatomy of Protest 2" film was shown on the NTV broadcasting network. The film claimed that the opposition was organizing a coup using funds from abroad and showed Udaltsov and his companions allegedly talking with Georgian politician Givi Targamadze, who at the time headed Georgia's Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee, and is said to have been involved in planning the "color" revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, as well as the mass riots in Belarus.

On February 24, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court sentenced eight activists to prison terms of three to four years in prison for participation in the riots. On June 20, the sentence of the two accused was mitigated by the Moscow City for several months.

Ten suspects were pardoned pursuant to a broad amnesty spearheaded by Russian President Vladimir Putin in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution at the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014.

Moreover, protester Maxim Luzyanin, who had pleaded guilty for his role in the riots, was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in 2012. Another defendant Mikhail Kosenko in 2013 was sentenced to compulsory psychiatric treatment. In early June, the Chekhov City Court of the Moscow Region released Kosenko from a mental hospital to continue treatment in an outpatient clinic.