Off the wire
• 1st Ld-Writethru: China to further reduce business charges  • Wildlife experts root for expansion of Kenya conservancies  • Xinhua world news summary at 1530 GMT, Feb. 8  • Palestinian organizations ask Israel's top court to repel land-grab law  • Assad says Syria situation moving toward what Syria, Russia want  • Zambia, Algeria reiterate commitment to enhance ties  • EU proposes extension of Chinese solar duties by 18 months  • Japan's service sector sentiment falls in Jan. for 1st time in 7 months  • Key insurgent commander killed in E. Ukraine explosion  • 6 more people die from anthrax in western Zambia  
You are here: 　 Home

Russian opposition leader convicted of embezzlement

Xinhua, February 8, 2017 Adjust font size:

A Russian court in a retrial found opposition leader Alexei Navalny guilty of embezzlement at a local timber company and gave him a five-year suspended sentence on Wednesday.

Navalny, a 40-year-old lawyer, said he is innocent and the sentence is politically motivated, aimed at preventing him from continuing his political activities.

Navalny, the founder of an anti-corruption foundation, has often publicly criticized the Kremlin and announced his intention late last year to run for the presidency in 2018.

Russian law stipulates that a person convicted of a grave crime loses the right to bid for the presidency.

"The verdict should be overturned. (If so,) I still have the right to participate in the 2018 election and I will," said Navalny, after hearing the ruling.

Navalny was given a five-year suspended sentence in July 2013 for allegedly organizing the theft of timber from the Kirovles timber company.

But in November 2015, the Supreme Court of Russia overturned the sentence and ordered the retrial of the case after the European Court of Human Rights said Navalny was not given a fair hearing. Endi