FILE PHOTO: Russian opposition figure Lyubov Sobol delivers a speech during a rally to demand authorities allow opposition candidates to run in the upcoming local election and release protesters, who were detained during recent demonstrations, in Moscow,
Moscow: A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced a protester to three years in prison for attacking a policeman during recent demonstrations, while investigators dropped "mass unrest" charges against five others.
The jailing of Ivan Podkopayev, convicted of attacking policemen with pepper spray during a July rally, was the first major prison sentence against a protester since anti-government demonstrations broke out this summer.
Tens of thousands have taken part in the protests demanding a fair vote after a slew of opposition candidates were barred from local elections taking place this Sunday.
Several thousand people were briefly detained during the demonstrations, and more than a dozen had been facing prison time on charges of mass unrest and attacking policemen.
Podkopayev's conviction had been expected as he pleaded guilty to the charge, but it had not been clear whether the court would go ahead with a jail sentence.
Critics have accused authorities of cracking down on the demonstrations with police violence, frequent arrests and threats of severe penalties.
Investigators did back down in other cases on Tuesday however, announcing that the mass unrest charges would be dropped against five men detained over the July 27 protest.
Russia's Investigate Committee said in a statement that the men, including student Daniil Konon and television director Dmitry Vasilyev, would instead face lesser, administrative charges.
The committee said it had requested that two more people, including student Yegor Zhukov, be transferred from jail to house arrest.
Late-night arrests
Other arrests meanwhile continued, with three protest leaders briefly detained late on Monday, including prominent journalist Ilya Azar and two allies of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Azar, a municipal deputy who works for top opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, could face up to 30 days in jail, while Navalny ally Lybov Sobol risks a hefty fine.
Azar, Sobol and Nikolai Lyaskin, all accused of organising illegal protests, were released pending trial.
Azar and Sobol faced court hearings on Tuesday but Azar's hearing was suddenly postponed, apparently because of police "violations".
His arrest sparked a backlash after police took the journalist away and left his 20-month-old child unsupervised at home in an unlocked apartment.
Azar's wife Ekaterina Kuznetsova said she was lost for words.
"I came home and found our apartment unlocked while the child was sleeping peacefully in her bed. Alone. This is pretty frightening," she said on Facebook.
Moscow ombudsman Yevgeny Bunimovich called on prosecutors to investigate police officers over the incident.
'Stalinist tactics'
Opposition politician Konstantin Yankauskas denounced the detentions on Twitter, saying: "Night-time arrests are purely Stalinist tactics resurrected in the 21st century."
Sobol, a 31-year-old lawyer for Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund, said the latest detentions were "revenge" for their activism and efforts to get on the ballot.
"People are ready to continue protesting," she told AFP.
"I am not afraid," said the lawyer, who refused food for more than a month to protest her exclusion from the Moscow parliament election.
She said that over the past two months she racked up more than 900,000 rubles ($13,500) in fines for her activism.
In a separate case on Tuesday, a court sentenced a blogger to five years in prison for a tweet that called for attacks on the children of law enforcement officials.
The tweet was written in response to the police crackdown.
The protests and ensuing crackdown are the biggest since a wave of demonstrations in 2011-12 against Vladimir Putin's return to the Kremlin.
At the peak of the protests in August some 50,000 to 60,000 people attended, while the latest demonstration at the weekend drew a few thousand.
