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Blogger Navalny found guilty of contempt of court

On Tuesday, the court started to deliver a verdict against Navalny at a field hearing that is being held at a penal colony in the Vladimir region’s town of Pokrov

POKROV /Vladimir Region/, March 22. /TASS/. Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court has found blogger Alexey Navalny guilty of contempt of court, a TASS correspondent reported.

"Navalny’s actions reflected open disrespect for the court," Judge Margarita Kotova said.

On Tuesday, the court started to deliver a verdict against Navalny at a field hearing that is being held at a penal colony in the Vladimir region’s town of Pokrov, where Navalny is serving his earlier sentence. Judge Kotova announced that the blogger had been found guilty of contempt of court during a hearing in over a defamation case with regards to war veteran Ignat Artemenko, as well as for fraud charges. According to investigators, Navalny embezzled about 2.7 mln rubles ($25,600) donated to the FBK Anti-Corruption Foundation (designated as an extremist organization in Russia). A sentence will be imposed on the blogger once the court summarizes all the collected evidence.

Navalny, twice sentenced to probation, was put on a wanted list for repeatedly violating his probation over his suspended sentence in the Yves Rocher case. He was detained upon his return from Germany at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport on January 17, 2021. On February 2, 2021, a Moscow court sentenced him to an actual prison term.

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