Kirov (Russia): Alexei Navalny, one of the Russian opposition’s leading figures, was convicted of embezzlement today and sentenced to five years in prison.
Navalny and his supporters claimed the case was politically driven to try to shut down the vehement Kremlin critic and intimidate his supporters. Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled USD 500,000 worth of timber from state-owned company Kirovles in 2009 while he worked as an unpaid adviser to the provincial governor in Kirov, about 760 kilometers east of Moscow.
The 37-year-old lawyer played with his smartphone for much of the nearly 3½-hour verdict reading.
A post on his Twitter account after the sentence was pronounced said “Oh, well. Don’t get bored without me. And, importantly, don’t be idle …” Navalny handed the phone and his watch to his wife Yulia before bailiffs took custody of him and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov, who was given a four-year sentence. Navalny first came to wide attention for vigorous blogging about corruption.
He was a top leader of the wave of massive protest rallies that broke out in late 2011 after a national parliamentary election scarred by allegations of widespread fraud. It was Navalny who first called the dominant United Russia party “the party of crooks and thieves,” a phrase that became a rallying cry for the nascent opposition to Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin. More recently, he pushed his ambitions by declaring himself a candidate for this fall’s Moscow mayoral election.
The head of his campaign staff, Leonid Volkov, said a decision on whether to pull out of the race would be made only after he could consult with Navalny, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Russian news reports said Navalny would be taken to a detention facility in Kirov before being sent to a prison. Before the sentencing, Navalny’s supporters had said they would rally in Moscow if he were sent to prison.
That could provoke a confrontation with police, who routinely crack down harshly on any unsanctioned rallies.
The judge said he found the testimony of key prosecution witness Vyacheslav Opalev to be “trustworthy and consistent.” Opalev, who was the timber company’s general director, got a suspended sentence in an expedited trial in December after pleading guilty to conspiring with Navalny. (PTI)