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Russian prosecutors demand 10 years behind bars for opposition activist Navalny

Associated Press
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Russian opposition activist and anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny smiles in a court room in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. Opposition activist and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who has been under house arrest since February, is being charged in a second trial that may put him behind bars for good. A laptop in front of Navalny has a sticker with a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the bottom of word "Thief", right. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) (The Associated Press)

A police officer inspects Alexei Navalny, center, before letting him in a Moscow court, Russia, Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. Opposition activist and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who has been under house arrest since February, is being charged in a second trial that may put him behind bars for good. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) (The Associated Press)

Russian opposition activist and anti-corruption crusader Alexei Navalny waits for a start of a trial in a court room in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec. 19, 2014. Opposition activist and anti-corruption blogger Alexei Navalny, who has been under house arrest since February, is being charged in a second trial that may put him behind bars for good. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) (The Associated Press)

Russian prosecutors have demanded that an opposition activist be imprisoned for a total of 10 years on allegations of fraud.

In their closing arguments in a Moscow courthouse, prosecutors asked a judge to convict Alexei Navalny and imprison him for nine years, with an additional year added because of a prior conviction. The request for such a lengthy prison sentence is unusual for financial crimes in Russia.

Navalny, along with his brother Oleg, is on trial for allegedly defrauding a French cosmetics company in a criminal case in which no injured party has stepped forward. The prosecutors demanded that Navalny's brother be imprisoned for six years.

After becoming an online sensation with corruption investigations of Russia's elite, Navalny became one of the leaders of anti-government protests in 2012.