MOSCOW, August 29 - RAPSI, Igor Petrushov. The Moscow District Court has postponed until September 9 the hearing of entrepreneur Vladlen Stepanovs defamation of character lawsuit against blogger Alexei Navalny, the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) reports from the courtroom.

Stepanov also requested compensation of one million rubles (approximately $34,603) from Navalny.

The court was scheduled to resume the hearings on Monday, but later decided to postpone the hearings as Stepanov is ill.

The plaintiffs attorney said his client will not be able to appear before court due to his poor health.

After the hearing, Navalny told journalists that he does not agree with the claims and declared his innocence.

Stepanov asked the court to obligate Navalny to refute information posted on LiveJournal about his alleged involvement in corruption, his attorney Andrei Muratov said. He added that the information in dispute from Navalnys blog mentions Sergei Magnitskys death in an isolation ward.

Navalny is widely known as a blogger involved in anti-corruption investigations. In 2010, he submitted a range of lawsuits on the provision of information against major Russian companies.

Magnitsky, a Hermitage Capital Management lawyer, was accused of tax evasion and died in a Moscow investigative isolation ward on November 16, 2009.