“A colony employee said that Navalny's body is currently in Salekhard (a city in Russia – ed.) Now investigators are conducting an “investigation”. We demand the immediate release of Alexei Navalny's body to his family,” Jarmish wrote.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's mother, Lyudmila Navalny, visits the penal colony where her son died; He was accompanied by an opposition lawyer, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing the independent website Novaya Gazeta.
On Friday, Navalny's spokeswoman Kira Yarmish said the opposition lawyer “will leave the city of Sarp at night because of such connections. He will arrive tomorrow morning with Alexei's family.”
Lyudmila Navalna wrote on Facebook: “I don't want to hear any condolences. We saw our son in prison on February 12, we went to see him. He was alive, healthy and happy.”
Russian prison services said Friday that Navalny died suddenly in a penal colony above the Arctic Circle in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the far north. Navalny “felt bad” and “lost consciousness.” Despite an ambulance and resuscitation efforts, the protester died, prison services said.
January marks three years since Navalny was arrested and imprisoned on his return to Russia from Germany, where he underwent treatment following an attempted poisoning, largely carried out by Russian secret services. Authorities opened further criminal cases against him, resulting in a total of 30 years in prison.
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