The imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found guilty on Tuesday of fraud involving a large amount, a crime for which the prosecution is seeking a sentence of 13 years in prison.
“Navalni committed a fraud, that is, the appropriation of other people’s property through deception and breach of trustpronounced the judge Margarita Kotova, quoted by the interfax agency, when reading the conviction in a hearing held in the prison where the opponent is serving his sentence.
Thus, the court has indicated that the opponent is responsible for four cases of large-scale fraud that were charged to him, while he has said that he will rule later on the accusations of contempt against him, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.
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The Russian Prosecutor’s Office demanded last week a sentence of thirteen years in prison, which carries a fine of 1.2 million rubles (9,500 euros at current exchange rates), for the dangerousness that he attributes to Navalni, whom he accuses of creating a fraudulent plot in collaboration with his entourage and through his main organizations.
Navalni has been detained since he returned to Moscow in January 2021, after recovering in Berlin from a severe poisoning suffered a few months earlier. Then, the Justice determined that he should enter prison to serve a sentence for fraud of two and a half years issued in 2014.