MOSCOW
Russian anti-corruption blogger and opposition figure Alexei Navalny was sentenced to 15 days in jail by a Moscow court late Thursday evening.
Earlier that evening the blogger had been stopped by police in the city’s metro for passing out leaflets advertising an upcoming anti-crisis demonstration "Spring," which is scheduled for 1 March.
Navalny was charged in court with "repeated violations of the rules on mass events." According to Navalny's official website, his first violation of the rule occurred on 7 March 2014. For that offense the blogger was fined 10,000 rubles (then $280).
On Tuesday both Navalny and his brother Oleg had a court hearing to appeal their verdict and sentencing from 30 December of last year.
Oleg, who was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison, was not present in the court but watched the proceedings by video link.
While the court upheld the guilty verdict in the brothers' embezzlement case, it decided to lighten Alexei Navalny's sentence, freeing him from house arrest and a 500,000 ruble fine that he had been subject to last December.
Oleg Navalny's sentence, which includes the same fine, was upheld.
