MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/. A Moscow court of cassation rejected blogger Alexey Navalny’s cassation appeal against his conviction for fraud and contempt of court, a TASS correspondent reported.

Navalny took part in the hearing via video link from a penal colony where he is serving his sentence. The defense asked that the verdict be overturned and that Navalny be acquitted. The prosecution, in turn, asked the court to uphold the verdict.

Moscow’s Lefortovsky District Court earlier found Navalny guilty of election campaign fundraising fraud and contempt of court, sentencing him to nine years in a high security penal colony, one year and eight months of probation and a fine of 1.2 mln rubles ($19,400).

Navalny, twice sentenced to probation earlier, 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 real prison time instead of a 3.5-year suspended sentence.