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Russian opposition figure Navalny arrested for 15 days for resisting police

Opposition groups held rallis in downtown Moscow without being given the authorities’ permission

MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. Moscow’s Tverskoy court ruled on Monday to arrest opposition figure and blogger Alexei Navalny for 15 days, finding him guilty of resisting police during detention at an unauthorized rally in the center of the Russian capital, a TASS correspondent reported.

Earlier in the day, Navalny was also fined 20,000 rubles ($350).

More than 600 people were detained during Sunday’s unauthorized rally in Moscow, the city’s regional security department said.

The rally’s organizers had earlier refused to hold the demonstration at two other sites in the capital proposed by the authorities. The opposition groups held the rally in downtown Moscow without the authorities’ permission.

According to the

police, Navalny was detained during the protest as he refused to leave the scene and offered resistance to police. The opposition activist told the court that he had met all the legal demands of police. Navalny’s lawyers plan to appeal the court’s decision.

The opposition figure was charged with an administrative offence for "Organizing Mass Simultaneous Presence and (or) Movement of Citizens in Public Places That Caused Violation of Public Order." This article carries a maximum punishment in the form of an administrative arrest for 15 days.

Under law, upon the presence of two decisions on administrative offences, law-enforcement bodies may ask a court to replace Navalny’s suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher embezzlement case with a real prison term.