The Kremlin’s number 1 opponent and adversary died Friday in a penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence. His relatives accuse the Russian authorities of “doing everything to avoid having to hand over” the body.
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Alexei Navalny’s body kept in secret location. The Kremlin’s number one opponent and adversary died on Friday February 16 in a remote penal colony in the Arctic, where he was serving a 19-year prison sentence for “extremism”. The opponent’s relatives requested on Saturday that his remains be handed over to them “immediately”, without success. Franceinfo takes stock of what we know about the body of Alexei Navalny, two days after the announcement of his death by the Russian federal prison service.
His relatives were unable to access the morgue
Alexeï Navalny’s mother and lawyer went to Kharp, the Arctic town where the prison is located, explained the opponent’s spokesperson Kira Iarmich, in a video published Saturday on the platform Youtube by Alexei Navalny. Two hours after their arrival, “an employee of the colony [pénitentiaire] said the body was in Salekhard” about fifty kilometers away, she said. He would have been taken there by the “investigators” to examine the body.
On X, Kira Iarmich detailed that “Alexei’s lawyer and his mother arrived at the morgue” and that this one “was closed”. By calling the number indicated on the door of the establishment, the opponent’s lawyer was told that he was “the seventh of the day to call” and that the body of Alexei Navalny was not in the Salekhard morgue. Subsequently, the opponent’s mother received an official message confirming the death of her son.
“We are still waiting for the official death certificate, we demand that the body of Alexei Navalny be immediately handed over to his family”demanded Kira Iarmich in the video posted on YouTube. “It is obvious that the killers want to cover their tracks. That is why they are not handing over Alexei’s body and even hiding it from his mother”she also denounced on Telegram.
The official investigation ruled out any “criminal element”
“The lawyers [d’Alexeï Navalny] were informed that the investigation had been completed and that no criminal elements had been established. They lie literally every time, lead us in circles and cover their tracks.”Kira Iarmich was indignant on Saturday, still on X. Navalny’s spokesperson previously reported that “that Alexei’s body will not be released to his loved ones until the investigation is completed”citing a statement from the Local Commission of Inquiry.
According to the Russian Prison Service (FSIN), Alexeï Navalny died on Friday after having a sudden illness.after a walk”. “All necessary resuscitation measures were carried out, but did not give a positive result. Emergency doctors pronounced the patient dead”. According to the state news agency Ria Novosti, the Russian opponent had participated the day before by video in two hearings before a court in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow. “He did not express any complaints about his well-being, he actively expressed himself”the Kovrov city court told the Ria Novosti agency.
“The death of Alexei Navalny is a murder organized by Putin”accused former opposition MP Dmitri Goudkov on social networks.“Even if Alexei had died of ‘natural’ causes, they would have been the consequences of his poisoning and then torture in prison”, he added. The “special regime” colony where the Russian opponent was detained is part of a category of establishments where the conditions of detention are the harshest, and which are usually reserved for life sentences and the most dangerous detainees. .
A lawyer for the opponent, who came to see the investigators, was informed “that a new histological examination [avait] been carried out”. The results “should be known next week”specified Kira Iarmich.
Vladimir Putin remains silent
After the announcement of Navalny’s death on Friday, the Kremlin spokesperson said that Vladimir Putin had been “informed”, without further comment. The Russian president himself has not said a word publicly about this disappearance. A silence all the more heavy since, since then, the president has spoken to congratulate the Russian soldiers and fighters for their important victory in Adviïvka, an industrial town located in eastern Ukraine.
Several voices were raised to directly accuse the Russian president, starting with Yulia Navalnaïa, widow of the opponent: “I would like to tell you, here and today, to all those who work for Putin, his entourage, his relatives, his friends… I would like them to know that there will be no impunity. They will be sanctioned for what they did to our country, to my family, to my husband”she declared at the Munich Security Conference (Germany).
Protests and tributes to Alexei Navalny have flourished across Europe, followed by a crackdown in Russia. In two days, the police made 401 arrests during these events, according to the report from the specialized NGO OVD-Info on Saturday evening.