A court in a provincial Russian city has found opposition leader Alexei Navalny guilty in a retrial of a 2013 fraud case, which means that he cannot run for president next year.
In a webcast hearing on Wednesday, Judge Alexei Vtyurin said Navalny was guilty of embezzling timber worth about $500,000.
The previous guilty verdict was overturned by the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled that Russia had violated Navalny's right to a fair trial.
The judge, presiding in Kirov, a city nearly 800 kilometers (500 miles) east of Moscow, has yet to pronounce a sentence.
Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, stated that people were still waiting to hear whether Navalny would be sent to prison or be handed a suspended sentence.
"The prosecution had been asking for a suspended sentence but its up to the judge whether to put him in jail," he stated. "Up to this moment Alexei Navalny is the only person who has declared his candidacy. Navalny commands some degree of respect. He is an avid campaigner against corruption, he runs a popular blog and website and has been exposing corruption for many years. I think he will carry on doing."
Navalny, 40, has denounced the charges as politically motivated. Authorities have accused him of committing the crime while serving as an adviser to a governor of Russia's central Kirov region.
He was previously convicted in the Kirovles case in 2013. However, the European Court of Human Rights excoriated the proceedings as unfair, and the Supreme Court ordered a retrial
Navalny, the driving force behind massive anti-government protests in 2011 and 2012, had announced plans to run for office in December and had begun to raise funds.
Aljazeera