Alexei Navalny to Be Sentenced 9 Years in Prison

On Tuesday, the Russian court sentenced Russian politician and opposition leader Alexei Navalny  to nine years in prison.

Navalny was accused of fraud as the authorities accused him of stealing more than four million dollars.

Last year, Moscow City Court ruled that the high-profile Kremlin critic had failed to regularly report to the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), and his excuse for non-appearance was deemed insufficient. Therefore, the judge decided that the suspended judgment should be converted into a real one.

The anti-corruption activist was originally sentenced in 2014 to three-and-a-half years, but he has already served close to ten months under house arrest.

In 2014, Navalny was found guilty of embezzling 30 million rubles ($400,000) from two companies, including the French cosmetics brand Yves Rocher, in a case he claims was politically motivated.

The judgment was also condemned by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which called the conviction “arbitrary and manifestly unreasonable.”

He received a sentence suspended for five years, which was later extended by another year. It was due to expire on December 30th last year. However, a couple of days before it ended, Navalny was summoned by the FSIN. He didn’t turn up, as he wasn’t in the country, and was therefore declared a wanted person.