MOSCOW, November 29 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Friday dismissed appeals filed by organizers of unauthorized summer rallies against recovery of 1.2 million rubles (about $20,000) from them in favor of the city’s public transport authority Mosgortrans, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The court thus upheld a ruling issued by the Koptevsky District Court on September 10.

Opposition figures Alexey Navalny, Ilya Yashin, Ivan Zhdanov, Yulia Galyamina, Lyubov Sobol, Georgy Alburov are among defendants in the lawsuit.

In its suit Moscow’s public transport authority said that on July 27, an unauthorized rally led to the public transport traffic delay and truck detention time.

The defendants in turn objected the claim arguing that they had not called rally participants to divert traffic.

There are several similar lawsuits against the opposition figures in Moscow courts.

On October 1, the same court ordered recovery of nearly 3.5 million rubles from the opposition politicians for trampling grassplots down.

Moreover, in early October, the Tushinsky District Court collected over 240,000 rubles ($3,700) from organizers of unauthorized rallies in central Moscow in favor of the restaurant Armenia. The court granted the claim in part. The plaintiff demanded to recover 551,847 rubles.

Protest actions began in Moscow in mid-July after election commissions denied registration of certain opposition members as candidates for the Moscow City Duma elections reasoning that documents submitted by them contained numerous violations.

The first unauthorized rally took place hear the Moscow City Election Commission’s building on July 14 and looked like a provocation, according to law experts.

Unauthorized rallies in support of candidates seeking to become lawmakers of the Moscow State Duma but refused registration by the Election Commission were also held on July 27 and August 3 in central Moscow. Over 1,000 people were arrested for various violations as a result.