© RIA Novosti, Vladimir Astapkovich
Navalny's license to practice law revoked - official
Tags: Legal practice, Genri Reznik, Alexey Navalny, Russia
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MOSCOW, December 4 (RAPSI, Saria Kiut) - Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been disbarred, President of the Moscow Bar Association Genri Reznik told RAPSI on Wednesday.
Reznik had initially commented that Navalny had not yet been disbarred, but then explained that he had not been present during the Moscow Bar Association meeting where it's Vice-President announced Navalny's disbarment.
Late Tuesday, Navalny wrote on his blog that his license had been revoked on November 16 in connection with his guilty verdict in the Kirovles timber embezzlement case.
Alexey Navalny, 37, a lawyer and an anti-corruption blogger, has risen to become one of the most prominent faces of the Russian opposition movement since the start of mass protest rallies in Moscow in late 2011.
He ran for Moscow mayor in September, losing to the Kremlin-backed incumbent, but boosting his public exposure through a vigorous grassroots campaign. He gained just over 27 percent of the vote, well above what initial polls suggested he would get.
On appeal in a separate criminal case, Navalny received a suspended sentence earlier this month based on his conviction on charges of timber embezzlement last in July stemming from a stint spent serving as an advisor to Kirov governor Nikita Belykh between May and September 2009. Investigators had alleged that Navalny organized the theft of over 10,000 cubic meters of timber during that period in collusion with Vyatka Timber Company Director Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles CEO Vyacheslav Opalyov.
He was initially sentenced to five years in a penal colony, and his co-accused Pyotr Ofitserov received a four-year sentence. The two were held liable to pay a one million ruble fine between them.
On October 16, however, a court in Russia's Kirov region suspended Navalny's sentence.