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Criminal case against Opposition activist Alexei Navalny sent to court

Investigator believes that more than 10,000 cubic meters of timber were stolen in the period from May to September 2009, causing a 16-million-rouble damage to the regional budget

MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) – The criminal case over property squandering against Opposition activist, lawyer Alexei Navalny, has been sent to a Kirov region court.

"The criminal case against Alexei Navalny and Pyotr Ofitserov with endorsed indictment has been sent to Kirov's Lenin district court for consideration on the merits," the press service of the Investigative Committee /SK/ told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

Earlier, SK spokesman Vladimir Markin told Tass that Navalny, as an advisor to the Kirov region governor, "arranged the theft of Kirovles company by entering in collusion with Vyatka Timber Company director Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles director general Vyacheslav Opalev."

The investigator believes that more than 10,000 cubic meters of timber were stolen in the period from May through September 2009, causing a 16-million-rouble damage to the regional budget.

On December 24, 2012, Kirov's Lenin district court gave Opalev a four-year suspended sentence. Opalev had pleaded guilty and signed a plea bargain agreement. "He gave detailed testimony regarding the circumstances of the crime committed in complicity with Navalny," the SK said.