Moscow: Russian police detained hundreds of protesters on Monday outside
a court that sentenced seven activists to prison terms of up to four
years for demonstrations against Vladimir Putin's third presidential
inauguration.
The Moscow court sentenced the seven defendants to penal colony terms of between two and a half and four years for what the judge ruled to be "mass riots" during the 2012 demonstrations, a high-profile case that has become a symbol of the harsh crackdown on opposition protests since Putin returned to the Kremlin.
Several hundred supporters gathered outside the court shouting slogans as security forces and riot police ordered them to disperse.
More than 200 people were detained for "attempts to breach public order", a Moscow police spokesman told AFP. Some of those detained wore prison uniforms, while one wore a Putin mask.
Lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky called the sentences excessive after his client, Yaroslav Belousov, was sentenced to two and a half years.
"The sentences are harsh and inappropriate. They were issued based on the political situation, not on the nature of the charges," he said.
An eighth defendant, the only woman in the case, was given a suspended sentence of three years and three months.
The eight defendants were found guilty on Friday of taking part in mass riots and hitting policemen at a rally ahead of Putin's inauguration on May 6, 2012.
Most of the defendants have been held in custody since 2012.
Amnesty International called the guilty verdict against the activists a "hideous injustice" and condemned the hearings as a "show trial".
Two members of protest punk band Pussy Riot who were released from prison in December, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were among those supporting the defendants outside the courthouse.
Both women were detained, Alyokhina wrote on Twitter, posting a photograph of them sitting in a police van.
Protest leader Alexei Navalny was also held, writing on Twitter that police were "detaining people without any reason".
The Moscow court sentenced the seven defendants to penal colony terms of between two and a half and four years for what the judge ruled to be "mass riots" during the 2012 demonstrations, a high-profile case that has become a symbol of the harsh crackdown on opposition protests since Putin returned to the Kremlin.
Several hundred supporters gathered outside the court shouting slogans as security forces and riot police ordered them to disperse.
More than 200 people were detained for "attempts to breach public order", a Moscow police spokesman told AFP. Some of those detained wore prison uniforms, while one wore a Putin mask.
Lawyer Dmitry Agranovsky called the sentences excessive after his client, Yaroslav Belousov, was sentenced to two and a half years.
"The sentences are harsh and inappropriate. They were issued based on the political situation, not on the nature of the charges," he said.
An eighth defendant, the only woman in the case, was given a suspended sentence of three years and three months.
The eight defendants were found guilty on Friday of taking part in mass riots and hitting policemen at a rally ahead of Putin's inauguration on May 6, 2012.
Most of the defendants have been held in custody since 2012.
Amnesty International called the guilty verdict against the activists a "hideous injustice" and condemned the hearings as a "show trial".
Two members of protest punk band Pussy Riot who were released from prison in December, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were among those supporting the defendants outside the courthouse.
Both women were detained, Alyokhina wrote on Twitter, posting a photograph of them sitting in a police van.
Protest leader Alexei Navalny was also held, writing on Twitter that police were "detaining people without any reason".
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