MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) – A regional court in Russia began Wednesday reviewing the appeal of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was convicted earlier this year of embezzlement in what he claimed was a politically motivated case.
The hearing in the Kirov Region Court was to have begun last week, but had to be postponed because Navalny had to attend another trial on similar charges in Moscow.
Navalny was sentenced to five years in prison in July on charges that he embezzled produce of a state-owned timber company in the Kirov Region when working as an unpaid advisor to the local governor in 2008. He claimed he was only fighting the company’s inefficient and corrupt management.
Navalny was formally arrested in the courtroom at the end of his trial in July, but, in a highly unusual move for Russian justice, released from custody the next day at the prosecution’s request, pending appeal.
Navalny, 37, a lawyer and an anti-corruption blogger, has risen to become one of the most prominent faces of the Russian opposition movement since the start of mass protest rallies in Moscow in late 2011.
He ran for Moscow mayor last month, losing to the Kremlin-backed incumbent, but boosting his public exposure through a vigorous grassroots campaign. He gained just over 27 percent of the vote, well above what initial polls suggested he would get.
However, Navalny’s political ambitions could be terminated if his guilty verdict is upheld at appeal, as convicted offenders cannot currently run for political office in Russia even after serving their term. The Constitutional Court ruled against the ban last week, but legal technicalities are likely to still deny Navalny a place on the ballots in the Moscow City Duma elections in 2014 and the presidential vote of 2018 due in case he is convicted.
Navalny said earlier this week that he expected the court to find him guilty in order to deny him a future place on the ballot, though he added that he thought his sentence may be suspended.
Some local media have previously suggested Navalny’s jailing will make him a “Russian Mandela,” and also speculated this was why his case could be included in a possible forthcoming amnesty in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Russian constitution, currently in the works in the Kremlin-controlled legislature.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Navalny routinely criticizes in his speeches, has previously denied allegations that he masterminded the case against the activist.
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