Moscow Court Declines to Replace Navalny’s Probation With Imprisonment

Moscow’s Lublinsky court declined to jail opposition figure Alexei Navalny as requested by the prosecution, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Prosecutors, backing an earlier request by the Federal Penitentiary Service, requested the court to jail Navalny for violating the terms of his suspended sentence.

"The Federal Penitentiary Service’s request to replace [Navalny’s] probation for real imprisonment has been refused," judge Lilia Dadashova said.

In December 2014, Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years for the embezzlement of some 30 million rubles ($452,000 at the current exchange rate) from the Yves Rocher cosmetics company and the Multifunctional Processing Company (MPC). The sentence was suspended.