Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A Russian court found opposition leader Alexei Navalny guilty Wednesday in a retrial of his embezzlement case, barring a 2018 presidential run.
The court in Kirov, Russia, retried Navalny after the European Court of human rights found procedural violations in an earlier trial. Navalny and colleague, Pyotr Ofitserov, were convicted in 2013 of embezzlement involving funds of the Kirovles timber company. Some saw the trial as a means of silencing Navalny, an anti-corruption activist believed to be interested in running against Russian President Vladimir Putin in the 2018 election, The Guardian reported.