MOSCOW, December 4 (RAPSI) – The Kopeisk City Court in Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region will consider a criminal case over mass riots in a local penal colony in 2012, the press service of the Prosecutor General’s Office reports.

Three defendants are on trial, the statement reads.

The Kopeysk prison protest was sparked in late November 2012 in response to fellow inmates being held in punishment cells. The inmates’ relatives gathered outside the prison and clashed with riot police, who then arrested about 30 of them. The prison warden was dismissed and charged with abuse of office.

The Investigative Committee found that the inmates rioted to seize power in the prison and the right to consume alcohol, to use mobile phones and to have access to the Internet, sexual services and other benefits that are denied to them under the criminal and penal codes.

Investigators established that preparations for the riots lasted several months and that at least 150 of the inmates’ relatives, friends and acquaintances and over 1,000 inmates took part in the protest.

Earlier, 19 other riots participants were convicted and sentenced in the case.