海角大神

This story was updated at 1 p.m. EST.

Moscow police briefly detained聽Russia鈥檚 most prominent opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, as he tried to join an unauthorized rally on Tuesday after a court handed him a suspended sentence in聽a high-profile fraud case.

Police reportedly said they were merely escorting Mr. Navalny back to his home, "in a sign of how are to make a martyr of" him, The New York Times reports.

After the sentencing, Mr. Navalny denounced the court鈥檚 decision to jail his brother Oleg to three and a half years in prison on the same charges. Opposition leaders argued that to avoid mass protests, a risk associated with jailing Navalny, the Kremlin decided to punish him by jailing his brother. They said the court's decision was a聽politically motivated move to stifle dissent.聽

鈥淪hame on you!鈥� Navalny in a Moscow court, according to The Washington Post. 鈥淲hy are you putting him in jail, just to punish me even more?鈥�

The court found both brothers guilty of defrauding two firms, including a French cosmetics company, and laundering money. Navalny鈥檚 three-and-a-half year suspended sentence means he won鈥檛 go to prison, but it keeps him under house arrest pending an appeal. His brother was jailed following the verdict.

"The authorities are torturing and destroying relatives of their political opponents. This regime doesn't deserve to exist, it must be destroyed," Navalny told reporters outside the courthouse.

Navalny has become known as President Vladimir Putin鈥檚 most vocal critic for his work as an anti-corruption crusader. He leaped onto the public stage three years ago when he聽led mass demonstrations聽to protest corruption in the government and Mr. Putin's inner circle.

In January, he published a report claiming that huge cost overruns at the Winter Olympics in Sochi enriched a small circle of businessmen close to the Mr. Putin, 海角大神 reported.

Tuesday鈥檚 verdict was the against Navalny. As The Wall Street-Journal reports:

Last year, he was convicted in an unrelated fraud case. He was initially sentenced to five years in prison, but was unexpectedly released on his own recognizance within days. He later ran for mayor of Moscow, coming in second to the pro-Kremlin candidate with 27% of the vote. Shortly after that race, the court converted his jail term into a suspended sentence.

The court had originally scheduled to announce the latest verdict in January. But the sentencing hearing was moved up after thousands of Navalny鈥檚 supporters had planned a rally for Jan. 15.

After the sentencing, Navalny called on his supporters to protest. About 17,000 people have registered on Facebook to attend a rally in front of the Kremlin. Reuters reports that authorities have and that there maybe arrests as a result.

The Washington Post reports that anti-Kremlin protesters have confronted increased pressures in Russia over the last year as tensions with the West have grown.

But to some Kremlin critics, the falling price of oil and the plunge of Russian ruble raised the possibility that Putin鈥檚 grip on power might be weakening.

Yet Tuesday鈥檚 verdict demonstrated the unpredictable nature of how justice can be meted against political opposition figures in Russia.

In a sign of Navalny鈥檚 influence, the BBC's Stephen Ennis reports that "Kremlin-controlled TV channels the verdict in their main news bulletins."