MOSCOW, April 8 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Friday put a stay on the proceedings for recovery of 16 million rubles ($236,000) from opposition politician Alexei Navalny in favor of Kirovles Company in connection with the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The hearing was suspended until Russia’s Supreme Court takes a decision upon the ECHR ruling.

In February, ECHR published a ruling regarding Kirovles embezzlement case, claiming that Navalny’s and his accomplice Pyotr Ofitserov’s rights on a fair trial were violated. However, ECHR did not find a political motive in this case.
ECHR ruled that Navalny must be compensated with 48,000 euro of legal costs and Ofitserov with 22,000 euro. Additionally Russia was ordered to pay 8,000 euro each in damages.

Russian Ministry of Justice appealed this ruling in the Supreme Court.

Navalny was given a five-year suspended sentence in July 2013 for embezzlement at the Kirovles timber company. In May, Moscow's Lyublinsky District Court increased a probation period for him to 5.5 years in the case. Ofitserov has received a four-year suspended sentence.

According to investigators, while serving on a voluntary basis as an adviser to the Kirov Region governor, Navalny allegedly organized the theft of over 10,000 cubic meters of timber from Kirovles between May and September 2009. He presumably acted in collusion with Vyatka Timber Company Director Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles CEO Vyacheslav Opalyov.