MOSCOW, January 14 (RAPSI) – Moscow's Tverskoy District Court declined on Wednesday to hear a motion for release from pretrial detention center filed by Oleg Navalny, the younger brother of anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, RAPSI learned in the court on Wednesday.

In late December, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court gave Alexei Navalny a 3.5-year suspended sentence. His brother Oleg was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. The Navalny brothers were convicted for embezzling 26 million rubles ($735,500) from cosmetics company Yves Rocher Vostok and 4 million rubles ($113,170) from the Multidisciplinary Processing Company by way of a fraud scheme.

Oleg Navalny requested that he be released from detention as the ruling was not final. He filed a similair motion with Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court.

The brothers have appealed the sentence on Monday.

In the meantime, the Federal Penal Service has complained that Alexei Navalny violated the terms of his house arrest.

Alexei Navalny, an opposition politician and head of the Party of Progress who came in second in the 2013 Moscow mayoral election, was given a five-year suspended sentence for the embezzlement of funds from the Kirovles timber company.