A Moscow court has extended by one year the five-year suspended prison sentence given to opposition leader Aleksei Navalny on an embezzlement conviction in the so-called Kirovles case.
"[The court rules] to extend Navalny's probation period until July 8, 2019," Judge Svetlana Tumanina read from the ruling on June 25 at Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court.
Russia’s Federation Penitentiary Service (FSIN) had asked the court on June 9 to extend the probation period, noting that Navalny has been repeatedly convicted of administrative offenses over the past year, which is a violation of the terms of his suspended sentence.
Navalny's five-year suspended sentence in the case -- which he and supporters say was politically motivated retaliation for his anti-Putin activity -- was due to expire in July.
The anticorruption crusader and vocal Kremlin foe was barred from running in the March 18 election in which President Vladimir Putin secured his fourth presidential term.
He was released from jail on June 14 following a 30-day sentence for allegedly violating regulations for organizing public gatherings and for refusing to comply with police orders.
Navalny has urged Russians to protest on July 1 against the government's plan to raise the retirement age, calling it "robbery" and a crime against the citizenry.
