An opposition activist, suspected of participating in unrest during an opposition rally in Moscow on May 6, 2012, committed suicide in a refugee center in Amsterdam.

      Alexander Dolmatov and over 400 people were arrested after rally on the Bolotnaya Square which turned into a conflict when protesters had broken through police lines in a bid to take the protest to the Kremlin walls.

      In November 2012, a Moscow court gave a four-year prison sentence to Maxim Luzyanin for “the use of violence against public officials” during the protest.

      Being afraid of the same sentence, Alexander Dolmatov went to The Netherlands and asked for political asylum, but was denied and taken to a refugee center in Amsterdam where he later commited suicide.

      The reason for the suicide was not known, his lawyer Yevgeny Arkhipov said. Dolmatov appealed the denial in court and the appeal hearing was expected to take place within the next several days, he added.

      More than a dozen other defendants in the so-called Bolotnaya case still stay behind the bars, maintaining their innocence. They can face up to ten years behind bars if found guilty.