Russian court rejects Navalny’s 2nd prison sentence appeal

MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Russia has rejected imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s second appeal of a nine-year sentence. The 46-year-old dissident is serving the sentence, handed to him in March, on the charges of fraud and contempt of court, in a high-security prison. Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he had been recuperating from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. He was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for a parole violation. In March, he was sentenced to nine years in a separate case on charges of embezzling money that he and his foundation raised over the years and of insulting a judge. His first appeal was rejected in May.