Estonian president indignant at Navalny verdict

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Photo: Peeter Langovits / Postimees

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves on Thursday expressed outrage at the conviction of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling the verdict politically motivated.

«I am indignant. Today's verdict once again comes across as politically motivated administration of justice in Russia,» Ilves wrote on Twitter.

The verdict has been condemned also by the European Union, Germany, France and the UK.

A court in Russia's northern Kirov region on Thursday sentenced protest leader Alexei Navalny to five years in a penal colony, news agency AFP reported. Judge Sergei Blinov said he found Navalny guilty of colluding to steal money in a timber deal while acting as an unpaid advisor to the local government. The verdict will disqualify one of President Vladimir Putin's fiercest critics from politics. Co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov was sentenced to four years in prison.

Navalny has called the fraud charges an act of revenge by the Kremlin.

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