Moscow court cuts jail term for protester

Moscow, Oct 9 (AFP) A Moscow court reduced Wednesday a prison term for a protester who was initially jailed for three years for using violence against police but upheld the conviction of another jailed demonstrator. The Moscow City Court ruled that the sentence for Ivan Podkopayev should be cut to two years in a penal colony, a court spokeswoman told AFP.

In September, the young technician was found guilty of using a pepper spray against police at an opposition protest during the summer. He had pleaded guilty. Later Wednesday the same court upheld the conviction of another protester, Kirill Zhukov, who was jailed for three years, also for using violence against police.

Zhukov sought to draw a policeman's attention at a protest rally and tried to pull up his visor. Over the summer, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Moscow after authorities refused to allow prominent opposition candidates to stand for the city parliament in September 8 elections.

Around 60,000 people rallied in Moscow at the peak of the demonstrations in August but the new wave of protests has since lost momentum. Authorities unleashed a crackdown on the anti-government rallies and sentenced several people to jail terms of between two and five years.

Despite calls from supporters, the Moscow court on Monday threw out an appeal of a man who last month was sentenced to two years in prison for allegedly attacking a policeman. At first entrepreneur Danil Beglets, a father of two and the sole breadwinner in his family, insisted he did not take part in the July rally and turned up near the site of the protest by accident.

In an apparent bid for a reduced sentence, he later admitted using violence against police. Amid a major campaign of solidarity involving Russian movie stars, the Moscow court last month released one of the convicted people, actor Pavel Ustinov, who was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison for violence against police.

The court gave the actor a one-year suspended sentence. Last Friday, the Moscow court also threw out an appeal from blogger Vladislav Sinitsa who was sentenced to five years in prison for a controversial tweet.

Thirty eight per cent of Russians believe the convictions against the protesters are unfair and politically motivated, according to a study released by the Levada pollster on Wednesday. (AFP) SCY SCY

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