A Russian court is expected to issue a verdict on Friday in the trial of Aleksei A. Navalny, the jailed opposition leader, on charges of supporting “extremism,” a decision that could extend his prison time by up to two decades.
Mr. Navalny, whose anti-corruption probes that have criticized the Kremlin have drawn popular support and angered Russia’s top leadership, is already serving a nine-year sentence in a maximum-security penal colony in Melekhovo. , 150 miles east of Moscow.
The verdict comes amid an intensified crackdown on dissent in Russia, which has banned criticism of its war in Ukraine, tightened its jailing of opposition voices and shut down liberal news media outlets.
In the case decided on Friday, Mr. Navalny, 47, was charged with promoting terrorism, financing extremism and rehabilitating Nazism. Prosecutors had called for him to serve an additional 20 years in prison in addition to his conviction in March on fraud charges, a case that rights groups said was politically motivated.
Acquittals are extremely rare in Russian courts, especially against opposition figures accused of offenses against state security. Mr. Navalny and Western rights groups denounced the charges against him as an attempt to silence dissent against President Vladimir V. Putin.
“The sentence will be long,” Mr. Navalny said in a statement released by his organization on the Telegram app on Thursday ahead of the expected verdict. “Think about why a huge sentence is needed. Its main purpose is to scare. You are not me. I will even say this: you personally, reading these lines,” he added.
The latest charges against Mr. Navalny were laid in a Moscow district court in late July, and the trial was conducted in closed-door hearings at the penal colony where he is being held. His parents tried to attend the trial but were not allowed in, according to Mr. Navalny’s organization, which said his parents had not seen their son for more than a year.
Daniel Kholodny, who used to help run Mr. Navalny, was also charged with financing and promoting extremism. Prosecutors asked the court to sentence Mr. Kholodny 10 years in prison; his verdict is also expected on Friday.
Mr. Navalny nearly died in 2020 after being poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent, an episode he and Western officials described as an assassination attempt by the Kremlin. The Russian government has denied involvement.
After receiving medical treatment in Germany, he returned the following year to Russia, where he was detained by waiting security forces. His group was subsequently banned – declared an “extremist” outfit – and Russian authorities began to crack down harder on its activities.
In the first convictions since the group was banned, two of his associates were sentenced in mid-July to prison terms of seven and a half years and two and a half years for participating in the organization. At least 15 activists who worked with Mr. Navalny face similar charges, according to his spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh. Many went into exile.
Mr. Navalny told a court in late July that he expected to be convicted as well.
“Everyone in Russia knows that a person who seeks justice in court is completely defenseless,” Mr. Navalny told the court, according to his team. “In a country ruled by a criminal, controversial issues are resolved by negotiation, power, bribery, trickery, treachery and other mechanisms in real life, and not by some kind of law.”
