A Moscow court has ordered Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to pay a fine in a defamation case, a ruling that came hours after another judge rejected the top Kremlin critic's appeal of his prison sentence.
The court convicted Navalny on charges of slandering a World War II veteran and ordered him to pay a fine of 850,000 rubles (about USD 11,500).
Navalny, who called the 94-year-old veteran and other people featured in a pro-Kremlin video last year as “corrupt stooges,” “people without conscience” and “traitors,” has rejected the slander charges and described them as part of official efforts to disparage him.
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Earlier Saturday, Navalny lost his appeal of the prison sentence for violating terms of his probation while recuperating in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin.
A Moscow City Court judge only reduced the sentence from two years and eight months to just over 2 1/2 years.
The verdict came even as the country faced a top European rights court's order to free Navalny. (AP)
