Kremlin critic Navalny calls for protests after brother jailed
Source: AFP
Russia's top opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday called for mass protests to "destroy" President Vladimir Putin's regime after a court jailed his brother in a controversial fraud case.
In a lightning hearing that was abruptly brought forward two weeks, a judge found both Navalny and his brother Oleg guilty of embezzlement and sentenced the siblings to three and a half years.
But while Navalny's sentence was suspended, his younger brother was ordered to serve the time behind bars in what observers saw as an attempt to muzzle the Kremlin's top critic by taking his brother hostage.
"This regime does not just destroy its political opponents, that is what we are used to... now they target, torture and torment the relatives of its political opponents," the charismatic Navalny said outside the Moscow courtroom after his handcuffed brother was led away.
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been arrested at a protest in Moscow, hours after being given a suspended sentence for fraud.
His brother Oleg had been given a three-and-a-half-year prison term for the same offence.
Navalny had tweeted a picture of himself on the way to the Manezh Square rally and was later pictured there.
He says the charges were politically motivated and linked to his opposition to President Vladimir Putin.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30635874
