Moscow Court Fines July Protester Novikov $1,880 For Using Force Against Police

Moscow Court Fines July Protester Novikov $1,880 for Using Force Against Police

Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on Friday fined Pavel Novikov, who participated in an unauthorized rally in Moscow on July 27, for hitting a police officer on the head with a bottle filled with water, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court room

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2019) Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on Friday fined Pavel Novikov, who participated in an unauthorized rally in Moscow on July 27, for hitting a police officer on the head with a bottle filled with water, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the court room.

Prosecutors were seeking a three-year sentence for the defendant, who had pleaded guilty.

"To impose a fine and release him in the court room," the judge said reading the verdict.

Novikov was fined 120,000 rubles ($1,880).

The court found Novikov guilty of an offense under subsection 1 of Article 318 of the Russian Criminal Code, namely the use of violence against a government official that is not dangerous to life and health. The maximum sentence for such an offense is five years in prison.

Some 1,700 people were detained during three demonstrations in July and August against the exclusion of pro-opposition candidates from the city council elections. Several other protesters have been charged with offenses related to civic unrest and assault on police.