Russian investigators refuse to release Navalny's body for two more weeks

Monday, 19 February 2024, 18:06

Russian investigators have refused to release the body of opposition leader Alexei Navalny to his mother, warning her that the expert examination of the body will continue for a further 14 days.

Source: Russian media outlet The Insider, citing Navalny’s press secretary, Kira Yarmysh

Quote from Yarmysh: "The investigators told Alexei’s lawyers and mother they will not release the body. The body will be undergoing some ‘chemical examination’ for another 14 days."

Details: The investigators have been hiding Navalny’s body for almost three days. Staff at the penal colony initially told his mother, Lyudmila, that the body was in a morgue in the Russian city of Salehard. At the morgue she was told they did not have the body.

The current location of the body is unknown.

Background:

  • On the afternoon of 16 February, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service reported the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at Correctional Facility No. 3 in Kharp, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in northwestern Siberia.
  • Alexei Navalny had been imprisoned since early 2021. The Moscow City Court sentenced him to 19 years in prison in a special-regime colony for "extremism" in August 2023.
  • In December, the opposition leader was transferred to Correctional Facility No. 3, known as Polyarnyi Volk (Polar Wolf), which is located in Kharp in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Siberia.

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