Putin Foe Alexei Navalny Arrested at Protest Hours After Receiving Suspended Sentence for Fraud

Alexei Navalny, a prominent Kremlin opposition leader and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has reportedly been detained for breaking house arrest by joining in a Moscow protest hours after a court found the 38-year-old and his younger brother, Oleg, guilty of fraud on Tuesday morning.

"Yes, there is this house arrest. But today I want to be with you. So I'm coming," Navalny wrote on Twitter alongside a photo of himself riding the Moscow subway.

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— Alexey Navalny (@navalny)December 30, 2014

In a case widely regarded by critics of Russia's government as politically motivated, the brothers each received three-and-a-half-year sentences for allegedly defrauding a French cosmetics company of 30 million rubles ($540,000) between 2008 and 2012. The brothers have frequently denied the charges.

Alexei was given a suspended sentence while Oleg will serve his time in prison. The siblings were also ordered to pay four million rubles ($77,000) in damages and fined a further 500,000 rubles ($8,800).

"This government doesn't deserve to exist," Alexei, a lawyer and blogger, declared outside the courthouse shortly after the verdicts were handed down, according to a reporter for the Associated Press. "I'm calling on everyone to come out to the streets today (and stay there) until this government which snatches, tortures people is ousted."

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Alexei is well known for his investigations into government corruption and for leading protests in Moscow and St. Petersburg in 2011 and 2012. Oleg, a former state postal service executive and father of two, is reportedly not a member of the political opposition movement.

Supporters of the brothers see Oleg's prison sentence as a return to a Soviet-era policy of punishing dissidents through their family members.

"Aren't you ashamed of what you're doing? You want to punish me even harder?" Alexei Navalny yelled at the judge as she read the sentence for Oleg, according to the Associated Press. Alexei reportedly fought back tears before leaving to deliver a statement outside in which he called for a protest that evening.

This footage shows the two Navalny brothers in court as well as Aleksei leaving the building and departing in a police vehicle.

Sentencing for the brothers were scheduled for mid-January, but the pair were informed late Monday afternoon that the hearing would take place within less than 24 hours. Activists say the timing of the sentencing was a move by the government to suppress more demonstrations and political dissent.

Oleg — David M. Herszenhorn (@herszenhorn)December 30, 2014

Campaigners had organized rallies, with thousands signing up on social media, in advance of the initial scheduled court session on January 15, but quickly moved their protests to Tuesday evening after the verdict rescheduling was announced. A heavy police presence gathered near the Kremlin in Moscow ahead of the court ruling.

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Dozens of paddy wagons at the venue of today's protest in Moscow. — Nataliya Vasilyeva (@NatVasilyevaAP)December 30, 2014

Similar protests in cities around the world, including Hamburg, Paris, Tel Aviv, Kharkov, New York, Washington, and San Francisco were reportedly also planned for mid-January, and it is not clear whether demonstrators will stage impromptu gatherings in those areas. Meanwhile, the Russian punk rock group Pussy Riot has released a music video calling for protests in support of the brothers.

Alexei, who has been under house arrest since February, has long been on the radar of Kremlin officials. Earlier in 2013, while campaigning for Moscow's mayoral election, he was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to jail, but released a day later following massive street protests.

The executive of the French company, Yves Rocher, who drafted the criminal complaint against the brothers left Russia shortly after it was filed. The company has repeatedly said that it suffered no damages from the brothers.

The Kremlin denies punishing political opponents through the court system.

Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifields