Russian opposition leader Navalny found guilty of embezzlement, putting presidential bid in peril

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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny enters the courtroom in Kirov, Russia, on Wednesday, to be found guilty in the retrial of a 2013 fraud case. Photo: AP

Published: 1:09pm, 9 Feb 2017Updated: 10:28pm, 9 Feb 2017

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been found guilty at a retrial of embezzlement and given a five-year suspended prison sentence, putting his proposed presidential run in 2018 in doubt.

Election rules say candidates cannot have felony convictions, but the anti-corruption activist vowed to appeal and said he would continue his campaign “no matter what happens in court”.

“What we saw was a telegram from the Kremlin saying that they consider me, my team and those people whose views I express too dangerous to allow us into the electoral race,” Navalny said in the courtroom after the verdict.

“This verdict will be overturned. I have the full right under the constitution to participate in elections, and I will do so. I will continue to represent the interests of people who want Russia to be a normal, honest, not corrupt country.”

A photo taken on September 9, 2013 shows opposition candidate in Moscow's mayoral race, Alexei Navalny, speaking to the media at his campaign headquarters. Photo: AFP

In a trial widely seen as a means of silencing him, Navalny was convicted of embezzlement from a state timber company in Kirov in 2013, but he was allowed to run for mayor of Moscow while he appealed against the ruling. The 2013 verdict was sent for a retrial by the Russian supreme court after the European court of human rights (ECHR) found procedural violations in it last year.

Navalny’s lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, told journalists that Wednesday’s verdict did not answer the ECHR’s criticisms of the original trial. The verdict was based on the same evidence as in 2013 and assigned the same five- and four-year suspended sentences to Navalny and his former business partner Pyotr Ofitserov. Navalny was also ordered to pay a fine of 500,000 roubles (US$8,460).

As the judge read out the guilty verdict on Wednesday, Navalny tweeted out pages from the original verdict to support his claim that it had been copied word for word.