Alexei Navalny, the anti-corruption campaigner, who is a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was found guilty of fraud and given a suspended sentence of three-and-a-half years on Tuesday, while his brother was sent to prison.
The verdict was scheduled for January, but the court session was abruptly moved forward to the day before New Year’s Eve.
Navalny and his younger brother Oleg were convicted of defrauding a French cosmetics company and given the same sentence as each other, but Oleg’s was not suspended. The court also fined each of them 500,000 rubles (about $8,800) and ordered them to pay some 4 million rubles ($77,000) in damages.
“Aren’t you ashamed of what you’re doing? You want to punish me even harder?” Alexei Navalny shouted out as Judge Yelena Korobchenko handed down the sentence for his brother.
Alexei briefly entered the metal cage that his brother was put into after the verdict and appeared to be holding back tears.
“This is the most disgusting and vile of all possible verdicts,” Alexei Navalny said outside the court.
“The government isn’t just trying to jail its political opponents we’re used to it, we’re aware that they’re doing it but this time they’re destroying and torturing the families of the people who oppose them,” he said.
The suspended sentence means that it could be converted into a prison term at any moment if Alexei Navalny offends again, although this will be still up to the court to decide.
Navalny has been under house arrest since February and his lawyer Vadim Kobzev told The Associated Press that he will remain there until all appeals are exhausted, which could take months.
