A Russian court in a retrial found opposition leader Alexei Navalny guilty of embezzlement at a local timber company and gave him a five-year suspended sentence on Wednesday.
Navalny, a 40-year-old lawyer, said he was innocent and the sentence was politically motivated, aimed at preventing him from continuing his political activities, Xinhua news agency reported.
Navalny, the founder of an anti-corruption foundation, has often publicly criticised the Kremlin and announced his intention late last year to run for the presidency in 2018.
Russian law stipulates that a person convicted of a grave crime loses the right to bid for the presidency.
"The verdict should be overturned. (If so,) I still have the right to participate in the 2018 election and I will," Navalny was quoted as saying.
Navalny was given a five-year suspended sentence in July 2013 for allegedly organising the theft of timber from the Kirovles timber company.
But in November 2015, the Supreme Court of Russia overturned the sentence and ordered the retrial of the case after the European Court of Human Rights said Navalny was not given a fair hearing.
--IANS
sku/
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
