MOSCOW, September 22 (RAPSI) - Opposition figure Alexei Navalny will contest a decision by the Federal Migration Service on denying him a foreign travel passport in court, according to Yulia Petrova, press secretary of the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow.

Navalny’s application was rejected due to his repeated suspended sentences.

The hearing will begin on September 30. Navalny believes the Federal Migration Service acted against the law, Petrova said.

Last June, Navalny announced that he was deprived of the opportunity to travel outside Russia after being denied a foreign travel passport.

Vladimir Yefimkin, head of the Foreign Passport Department of the Federal Migration Service in Moscow, told RIA Novosti that the decision is based on Russian law.

“In accordance with Article 15 Section 4 of the Federal Law On Exit from and Entrance to the Russian Federation, Alexei Navalny will not be issued a foreign passport. The right of a Russian national to travel outside the country may be temporarily restricted if he or she was convicted of a crime, until the sentence is served or until release from the sentence,” – Yefimkin said.

Alexei Navalny is a Russian political and public figure, leader of the Party of Progress. He ran for Moscow mayor and is the author of one of the most popular political blogs that was banned for promoting unauthorized public protests. He has already been given two suspended sentences for embezzlement – five years in the Kirovles case and 3.5 years in the recent Yves Rocher Vostok case.