A court in Russia has sentenced opposition leader Alexei Navalny to 20 days in jail for repeatedly violating laws on the organization of public meetings and rallies.
The ruling was made on Monday, three days after the 41-year-old campaigner was detained by police as he left his apartment in Moscow with the intention of traveling to the provincial city of Nizhny Novgorod to attend an anti-government rally there.
Police said Navalny was held over "multiple calls to participate in an unauthorized public event."
The outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin hopes to run in the presidential election in March 2018 despite Russia's central election commission declaring him ineligible because of a suspended prison sentence which he says was politically-motivated.
Navalny has been arrested numerous times by Russian authorities over various charges, including embezzlement and fraud.
The opposition leader made headlines in late March after he was briefly arrested along with some 1,000 people for protests that came following his allegations about corruption in the government. He made the headlines again in April when an attacker doused his face with a green antiseptic liquid.
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