Russian Court Announces Guilty Verdict Against Opposition Figure Navalny

A court in the Russian city of Kirov began announcing on Wednesday the guilty verdict to Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny over embezzlement of funds from the state-run KirovLes company, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.

KIROV (Sputnik) – The sentencing is underway. The penalty will be announced later.

In 2012, Navalny was convicted of setting up a criminal scheme to steal timber from KirovLes, resulting in a $255,000 loss to the regional budget. A five-year prison term sentence handed down to Navalny by court was suspended.

In December 2014, Navalny was sentenced to 3.5 years for the embezzlement of 30 million rubles ($500,000) from the Yves Rocher cosmetics company and the Multifunctional Processing Company (MPC). The sentence was again suspended.

Navalny heads the Party of Progress. In 2013, he finished second in the Moscow mayoral election, with 27 percent of the vote. He voiced an intention to run in 2018 presidential election in Russia.