Russia detains 100 as court sentences anti-Putin activists

Russian police detained at least 100 protesters today outside a Moscow court where a judge was set to sentence activists for a protest against President Vladimir Putin.
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 in 2012.
The case is part of a harsh crackdown on the opposition protest movement since Putin returned to the Kremlin for his third term. Most of the defendants have been held in custody since 2012.
Amnesty International called Friday's guilty verdict a "hideous injustice" and condemned the hearings as a "show trial".

The court had postponed the sentencing until today in a move viewed by the opposition as an attempt to avoid publicity during yesterday's closing ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
Several hundred supporters today gathered outside the court shouting slogans as security forces and riot police ordered them to disperse.

More than 100 people were detained for public order offences, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing Moscow police. Some of those detained wore prison uniforms, while one wore a Putin mask.
Two members of protest punk band Pussy Riot who were released from prison in December, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, came to support the defendants.

Protest leader Alexei Navalny was among those detained, writing on Twitter that police were "detaining people without any reason".
The high-profile case was opened after street clashes on May 6, 2012, when tens of thousands marched through Moscow in protest at Putin's return to the Kremlin.
Judge Natalya Nikishina today said as she began reading out the sentence that the defendants "took part in mass riots, their shared blame is established and proved".
The clashes on central Bolotnaya Square led to dozens of arrests and injuries on both sides. Investigators have said the opposition planned to overthrow the government and destabilise the country.