Russia charges opposition leader for unsanctioned protest

Russian police released opposition leader and would-be presidential candidate Alexei Navalny on Friday after several hours in detention.

Police charged Navalny with repeatedly organizing unauthorized rallies, an administrative offense punishable with a fine of up to a 300,000 rubles ($5,200) and compulsory work for up to 200 hours.

"We were finally presented with a charge and released, and the trial will be on October 2 at the Simonovsky Court of Moscow at 15:00 Moscow time," Navalny's lawyer, Olga Mikhailova, told Interfax.

Police had stopped Navalny early Friday as he was headed to a campaign rally in the city of Nizhny Novgorod, where at least one other rally leader was also detained — Navalny's campaign chief, Leonid Volkov.

"I'm in a police station now and they're going to accuse me of repeated violation of the procedure for holding a mass event," Navalny told VOA's Russian service reporter Danila Galperovich earlier Friday. "It means almost for sure they will arrest me after the court will hear my case. I don't know when."


Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny greets supporters as he leaves a police station in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 29, 2017.
Police in Nizhny Novgorod, about 260 miles (417 kilometers) east of Moscow, had cordoned off the campaign rally site hours before the event was to begin and removed a Navalny campaign tent.

Despite the police actions, hundreds of Navalny's supporters rallied Friday in the provincial city in protest. Images from social media showed protesters walking on a central street while loud music from an officially sanctioned concert blared nearby.

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