KIROV, September 18 (RAPSI) - Sergei Kobelev, attorney for opposition activist and Moscow mayoral hopeful Alexei Navalny, has filed to the Kirov regional court an application to send the timber embezzlement case materials back to a lower court, Kobelev told RIA Novosti.

According to the lawyer, the court has not considered remarks on the protocol of Judicial session.

On Monday, the Leninsky District Court referred an appeal against the verdict filed by Navalny and businessman Pyotr Ofitserov to the Kirov regional court.

Navalny was found guilty of timber embezzlement last in July stemming from a stint spent serving as an advisor to Kirov governor Nikita Belykh between May and September 2009. According to investigators, Navalny organized the theft of over 10,000 cubic meters of timber during that period in collusion with Vyatka Timber Company Director Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles CEO Vyacheslav Opalyov.

He was sentenced to five years in a penal colony, and his co-accused Pyotr Ofitserov received a four-year sentence. The two were held liable to pay a one million ruble fine between them.

Both Navalny and Ofitserov were released from custody until pending their appeal, which was filed with the court in late July against the verdict is considered. It has reached the court late in July.