A Russian judge on Thursday found opposition leader Alexei Navalny guilty of theft, a ruling that could send the charismatic anti-corruption blogger and Moscow mayoral candidate to prison for up to six years.
Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled US$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 kilometres (470 miles) east of Moscow.
That was the same year that Navalny, a lawyer, started an anti-corruption blog that attracted a wide following and propelled him into becoming a key opposition figure.
It was Navalny who 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.
Judge Sergei Blinov did not immediately state the prison sentence. Under Russian court proceedings, full verdict readings can take several hours.
While waiting for the sentence for him and co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov — who was also found guilty of embezzlement — Navalny played with his smartphone and occasionally smiled sardonically.