Yet another sentence for Alexei Navalny. Opposition leader Vladimir Putin was found guilty of new charges of embezzlement, a Russian court said, and sentenced to nine years in prison.
A "large-scale fraud", according to the judges. "Navalny committed embezzlement, or the theft of other people's property by an organized group," said judge Margarita Kotova, according to a journalist from the AFP news agency present on the spot. The activist was also found guilty of contempt of court.
The hearing was held in Pokrov prison, a few kilometers from Moscow, where Navalny has been detained for about a year.
The dissident is serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a prison camp east of Moscow for allegedly violating probation.
(Unioneonline / L)