A Moscow court on Saturday rejected opposition leader Alexei Navalny's appeal against what he said was a politically motivated decision to jail him for nearly three years, but had his prison term slightly shortened by six weeks.

Navalny was jailed on February 2 for allegedly violating parole, charges he has dismissed as politically motivated.

The court swiftly rejected his appeal, while shortening his original jail term by six weeks. The original term was 3.5 years. But, with the amount of time he had already spent under house arrest taken into account, it amounted to around two years and eight months. 

His lawyer said on Saturday he would now spend a little over 2.5 years behind bars.

(With input from Reuters)