Aleksei A. Navalny’s political allies on Saturday confirmed his loss of life, saying that his mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, had acquired an official notification that her son died on Friday afternoon. The affirmation got here as Russian officers detained lots of of individuals mourning his loss of life.
Mr. Navalny’s household was nonetheless ready for officers to launch the physique. Kira Yarmysh, Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, stated in a press release on X that Russian investigators had transferred Mr. Navalny’s physique from a penal colony within the Arctic to the city of Salekhard, the place it was being examined.
“We demand for Aleksei Navalny’s physique to be launched to his household instantly,” Ms. Yarmysh stated in her assertion.
The detentions of Mr. Navalny’s mourners signaled that the Kremlin wished to forestall his loss of life from turning right into a political occasion. A minimum of 400 folks in 36 cities had been detained because the loss of life was introduced on Friday, according to OVD Information, a rights group that tracks such arrests.
In Moscow, lots of of Russians got here to the Wall of Grief monument honoring victims of political repression in Russia. They had been met with a heavy police presence. In a single day, Moscow metropolis authorities eliminated piles of flowers that folks had left to commemorate Mr. Navalny.
Mr. Navalny’s mom and one in every of his attorneys arrived on Saturday morning on the penal colony within the Kharp settlement, Ms. Yarmysh stated in a video statement. She and others needed to wait for 2 hours earlier than a jail official got here out to say that Mr. Navalny’s physique had been transferred to Salekhard.
Ivan Zhdanov, the top of Mr. Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, stated in a put up on X that they had been advised within the penal colony that he died due to the “sudden loss of life syndrome.”
In Salekhard, a regional middle near the penal colony, Mr. Navalny’s mom and his lawyer discovered the native morgue closed. After they referred to as, the officers stated that Mr. Navalny’s physique was not there, Ms. Yarmysh stated. One other lawyer was advised, she stated, that an “extra histology” had been carried out to find out the reason for Mr. Navalny’s loss of life, and that its outcomes must be prepared subsequent week.
“They lie they usually do every part to not give out the physique,” Ms. Yarmysh stated.
In a separate video handle, Ms. Yarmysh accused Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, of killing Mr. Navalny.
“Three and a half years in the past Putin tried to kill Aleksei,” Ms. Yarmysh stated, referring to Mr. Navalny’s poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020. “Yesterday, he killed him.”
Ms. Yarmysh is a member of a crew of Mr. Navalny’s allies. Working from outdoors Russia, they’ve continued to hold out his work after his poisoning and his subsequent imprisonment, publishing his statements and organizing political occasions.
Jail authorities stated Mr. Navalny fell unconscious and died after a stroll on the penal colony, the place he had been transferred on the finish of December.
Of their statement about his loss of life, the jail authorities stated that its causes had been “being decided.” Native investigators stated that they’d begun a “procedural test” into Mr. Navalny’s loss of life. They stated “a set of investigative and operative measures is being carried out geared toward establishing all circumstances of the incident.”
Yevgeny Smirnov, a Russian lawyer, stated which means a forensic medical examination might be being carried out on Mr. Navalny’s physique. Family can retrieve the physique for burial solely after the reason for loss of life is formally decided, Mr. Smirnov stated.
In line with Public Verdict, a Russian rights group, such medical examinations often give solely very common causes of loss of life.
“Such investigations completely can’t be trusted,” the group stated in a statement.
Upon retrieving the physique, kin can bury it at a cemetery, the group stated. Mr. Navalny’s relations haven’t commented on the attainable burial preparations.
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