MOSCOW, April 29 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Babushkinsky District Court on Thursday upheld an 850,000-ruble fine ($11,500) imposed on Alexey Navalny as a punishment for defaming veteran of the Great Patriotic War Ignat Artemenko, RAPSI reports from the courtroom.

Navalny took part in the hearing through videolink.

In February, the court found the blogger guilty of defamation and ordered him to pay the fine for his statements about the veteran.

In early June 2020, Russia Today TV channel published a video where the 93-year Artemenko and other respondents were reading the Constitution preamble. Following that, Navalny released a video with comments on his social networks insulting the veteran. He pled not guilty.

In February, Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court overturned a suspended sentence given to Navalny in the Ives Rocher embezzlement case and ordered him to 3.5 years in jail. On February 20, the Moscow City Court upheld the ruling.

Currently, the blogger is serving sentence in a penal colony in Pokrov, a town in the Vladimir Region.