Europe

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny released from custody

Opposition figure jailed for violating the law when he campaigned for an opposition rally

Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader, walks out of a detention centre in Moscow a week after fellow opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead in what his allies say was a political killing aimed at intimidating them. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

Fri Mar 6 2015 - 09:52

Leading Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny has been released after spending 15 days in custody for handing out leaflets in the underground.

Mr Navalny walked free today after serving the sentence handed down by a Moscow court, which found him guilty of violating the law when he campaigned in the underground for an opposition rally.

A court rejected his plea for early release to attend Tuesday's funeral of murdered Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov.

Mr Navalny was convicted in late December of fraud and given a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence and ordered to remain under house arrest until his appeals were exhausted. He has repeatedly violated his house arrest since then.

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Mr Navalny’s brother was imprisoned under the verdict, which many see as a vendetta by the Kremlin.

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