MOSCOW

A court in Moscow sentenced on Wednesday a Dutch citizen to three years in prison for assaulting a police officer.

The court said that Harry Johannes van Voorden, while being drunk, hit a police captain near the Italian Embassy in Moscow in October.

"The Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow has decided to sentence Harry Johannes van Voorden, a Dutch national, to three years in a general regime penal colony," the judge said while reading out the verdict.

Law enforcement officials said Voorden had knocked over a plastic sign designating a parking space near the Italian Embassy.

When a police officer stationed outside the diplomatic mission addressed him about the incident, the Dutch national reacted by striking the officer twice.