Putin Foe Navalny given Suspended Sentence but Brother Imprisoned

Alexei Navalny, the opposition activist and anti-corruption campaigner and a political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was given a suspended sentence of three and a half years on Tuesday by a court for fraud, but his brother Oleg was sent to prison.

Navalney called it pressure tactics by the government. "Shame on you!" shouted Alexei Navalny at the judge in a Moscow court, reports the Washington Post. "Why are you putting him in jail, just to punish me even more?"  

Navalny and his brother Oleg were charged with defrauding a French company .The court also levied a fine of 500,000 rubles (about $8,800) and ordered them to pay some 4 million rubles ($77,000) in damages.

The verdict was scheduled for next month but was preponed  during the holiday season presumably to avoid protests
More than 30,000 people have signed a Facebook page protesting the arrest and unlawful trial of the brothers. A rally outside the Kremlin was planned Tuesday night. The government had requested Facebook to delete the page.

Navalny, a lawyer, is a political contender of Putin and has led massive protests against the government since 2011 and in 2013 was a strong mayorial candidate in Moscow.

Navalny's brother Oleg is an executive and is not politically active. His arrest is seen as a move by Kremlin to pressurise Navalny into withdrawing from pushing his agenda.