MOSCOW, September 22 (RAPSI) -On Monday, The Moscow City Court found valid the extension of probation for opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the Kirovles case, a RAPSI correspondent reports from courtroom.

Alexei Navalny is a Russian opposition leader, leader of the Party of Progress who came in a distant second place in the recent Moscow mayoral elections with 27%. He has been involved in several criminal cases and became popular as the author of an anti-corruption blog.

Under Russian law, if a convicted individual violates probation rules, the court may replace a suspended sentence with actual prison time.

In July 2013, the Leninsky District Court of Kirov sentenced Navalny to a suspended term of five years for embezzlement in the Kirovles company, with a five-year probation period.

In early July, the judge extended the probation by three months as requested by the Federal Penitentiary Service. The agency explained that the request was based on the fact that Navalny had been repeatedly charged with administrative and criminal liability.

Navalny has remained under house arrest since March 28. He is prohibited from using the Internet after restrictions were imposed on him in the Yves Rocher embezzlement case.

Navalny and his brother Oleg stand accused in a fraud case involving cosmetics company Yves Rocher Vostok. Investigators allege that the Navalny brothers embezzled up to 26 million rubles (about $677,000) from the cosmetics company, as well as close to 4 million rubles ($104,000) from the Multidisciplinary Processing Company by way of a fraud scheme. The brothers were further charged with having laundered 21 million rubles.