Almost 30 protestors arrested and 90 fined in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG. Feb 26 (Interfax) - Courts in St. Petersburg handed down administrative sentences to another nearly 100 people for staging an unauthorized protest on February 24, the city courts' press service said on Saturday.

In total, 355 dossiers were received, 275 of them are now resolved, the latest data said.

Thus, 28 activists were sentenced to custodial detention and 86 fined 20,000 rubles each. One case was dropped, 13 were postponed and another 28 sent back to police.

Also, district courts received at least 50 dossiers regarding an unauthorized protest held on February 25. Several have already been adjudicated, by Primorsky district court, which sentenced two people to five and seven-day arrests, the press service said.

Yesterday the press service said that over 30 protestors were detained and almost 100 fined; two were sentenced to compulsory labor.

More than ten cases were postponed, over 40 returned to compilers, and 27 dropped.

The protestors were charged with "organizing a mass simultaneous presence and/or movement of citizens in public places, resulting in disruption of public order" and "violating the rules for organizing or conducting an assembly, rally, demonstration, procession or picket" under the Russian Code of Administrative Offenses.

Both protests were staged near the Gostiny Dvor department store in Nevsky Avenue.