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Russian prisons service asks court to apply 5-year jail term to opposition figure Navalny

Russian opposition activist Alexey Navalny was last time sentenced to jail in February 2015 for handing out leaflets outside a metro station
Alexey Navalny and his lawyers in court Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS
Alexey Navalny and his lawyers in court
© Mikhail Pochuyev/TASS

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Penitentiary Service has asked a Moscow court to apply a five-year prison term to Russian opposition activist Navalny who was found guilty of embezzlement in the Kirovles case in 2013 and given a suspended sentence, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom on Wednesday.

Navalny "has systematically violated public order, was attracted to administrative responsibility and was given a second term in a criminal case," a penitentiary service representative told the Lyublinsky Court.

On July 18, 2013, the Leninsky District Court in the city of Kirov gave Navalny a five-year suspended sentence for embezzlement, while another suspect in the case, former head of Vyatskaya Forest Company Pyotr Ofitserov, received a four-year suspended sentence.

However, the verdict reads that the Federal Penitentiary Service may request the suspended sentence with a real prison term if suspects systematically disturb public order.

On December 30, 2014, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky Court found Alexey Navalny and his brother Oleg guilty of embezzlement in the Yves Rocher case. Alexey received a 3.5-year suspended sentence, while Oleg was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.

On February 19, 2015, Moscow's Presnensky Court sentenced Navalny to 15 days in jail for handing out leaflets outside a metro station.