Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has begun his appeal against a five-year prison sentence in a court in the city of Kirov.
Navalny, who was freed on bail immediately after being sentenced for embezzlement in July, travelled to the city east of Moscow by train.
He has always denied the charges, which relate to his time as an adviser to the governor of the Kirov region.
While on bail, he fought for election as mayor of Moscow, coming second.
In court on Wednesday, he again accused the authorities of prosecuting him for political reasons.
The anti-corruption campaigner could be seen taking a photo with a mobile phone bearing a sticker which mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin as a thief.
Earlier, he told Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets that he expected to receive either a suspended or a real sentence, and did not hold out hope for acquittal. “I’ve got the bag with my prison things in the car,” he said.
‘Fabricated, political’
In July, Navalny was found guilty of heading a group that embezzled timber worth 16m roubles ($500,000; £330,000) from the Kirovles state timber company while working as an adviser to Kirov’s governor, Nikita Belykh.
Speaking at his appeal hearing, he said: “I think the political motivation of this case is evident to everybody.”
The trial judge, he suggested, was rubber-stamping a “fabricated indictment”.
Navalny took 27% of the vote in Moscow last month against the Kremlin-backed incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin, who officially scraped through on the first round with 51% – a result the opposition leader disputes.
If his conviction is upheld, he will be kept out of elections for years.
However, Navalny built up his original following outside the political mainstream, using social media to highlight corruption which he identified with Mr Putin and his allies.
Since Mr Putin returned to power as president last year, other leading lights of the informal opposition have also been prosecuted, raising suspicions that the Kremlin is using the legal system to disable its enemies.
