Navalny Convicted of Libel

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was found guilty Tuesday of libel and fined 300,000 rubles ($8,400), a decision his spokeswoman said is aimed at paving the way to move the ex-Moscow mayoral candidate from house arrest to a jail cell. A local court in Moscow found that the prominent blogger and critic of President Vladimir Putin called the head of a Moscow district a drug addict in a Twitter post earlier this month. Mr. Navalny, who has been under house arrest and barred from communicating with the outside world since late February, in court denied writing the tweet, saying he had no access to the Internet. His wife, Julia Navalnaya, and his supporters say they have continued posting on his Twitter and LiveJournal pages.

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