Polikhovich was arrested on July 26, 2012. He was accused of participating in mass riots (paragraph 2, article 212 of the Russian Criminal Code) and of using force against a representative of authority (paragraph 1, article 318). He is facing up to thirteen years in prison. Polikhovich was accused of trying to pull a detained person from the hands of the Special Unit policemen and of hitting one of them on the hand while struggling with him. He was initially accused only of participating in mass riots, but the policeman who had not initially provided such information remembered and testified in December 2012 that Aleksey Polikhovich had hit him.