Russia's most prominent opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, has been found guilty of embezzlement at a retrial.

A court upheld the verdict of the first trial in 2013 that Navalny had led a group that embezzled timber worth 16m roubles (£330,000) from a Kirov state timber company while working as an adviser to the region's governor.

The case was brought after the European Court of Human Rights ruled he had not received a fair hearing.

Navalny has always denied the accusations, saying the case is politically motivated.

Prosecutors are asking for a five-year suspended sentence and a 500,000 rouble (£6,727) fine for Navalny and a four-year suspended sentence and similar fine for co-defendant Pyotr Ofitserov.


Image: Supporters of Navalny, who had already announced his intention to run for president

Crucially, Navalny's conviction makes him ineligible for public office, meaning he cannot run against Vladimir Putin in next year's presidential election.

He had already announced plans to run for office in December and had begun to raise funds.

His rise as a force in Russian politics began in 2008 when he started blogging about alleged malpractice and corruption at some of the country's big state-controlled corporations.

He described Mr Putin's United Russia party as "the party of crooks and thieves".

Image: Navalny drew big crowds at his events, including here in Moscow in 2013

Navalny became the unofficial leader of a protest movement that saw massive anti-government demonstrations during parliamentary elections in 2011 and then the presidential vote in 2012.

He was jailed in July 2013 for embezzlement in the city of Kirov, but was unexpectedly allowed out of prison to campaign for the Moscow mayoral elections.

Mr Navalny surprised many by polling more than a quarter of the vote, finishing second behind Putin-ally Sergey Sobyanin.