A Moscow city court began looking at appeals within the so-called ‘Yves Rocher Case’ on Tuesday. In December, Aleksey Navalny was given a suspended 3.5 year sentence and his brother Oleg got 3.5 years in prison after a Moscow district court found the brothers guilty of embezzling over $500,000 from cosmetics company Yves Rocher.
Prosecutors filed in an appeal, claiming that the sentence was too soft and both convicts must be isolated from the community. They asked the court to sentence Aleksey Navalny to 10 years in prison and Oleg Navalny to eight years. The basis of the request is that Aleksey Navalny had earlier been convicted in a corruption case. In mid-2013, the activist was given another five-year probation sentence for taking part in a graft scheme involving a state-owned timber company Kirovles.
READ MORE: Opposition figure Navalny guilty of embezzlement, gets 3.5yrs suspended sentence
The defense insists that both brothers are innocent and demand their full acquittal. According to the Navalnys’ lawyers, their scheme is nothing more than an ordinary middleman’s business. Also, Aleksey Navalny has repeatedly claimed that criminal cases against him, his brother and his allies were part of a revenge campaign of Russian authorities for his uncompromising struggle against corruption.
Various officials have repeatedly dismissed these claims, saying that opposition activities do not automatically make people immune from prosecution.
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